Ministr zahraničí navštívil nedávno krátce Izrael a poskytl rozhovor internetovému deník The Times of Israel. Rozhovor je zajímavý pro každého, kdo se zajímá o zahraniční politiku ČR vůči Izraeli a Blízkému východu, její vývoj a konzistenci.
The Czech foreign minister K. Schwarzenberg gave interview to The Times of Israel during his recent short visit in Israel. The interview is interesting for everyone, who is interested in Czech foreign policy towards the Middle East and Israel, its development and consistency.
Israeli plans to build in the controversial E1
corridor beyond the Green Line are
“obnoxious” and an unnecessary
provocation, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said during a
visit to Jerusalem, criticizing the government’s declared settlement
policy in unusually harsh terms.
Israel considers Prague one of its closest
allies in Europe, yet in a candid interview with The Times of Israel on
Monday, Schwarzenberg espoused a series of foreign policy positions
likely to deeply displease Jerusalem. He said, for instance, that he
could never express support for Israeli airstrikes on weapon convoys in
Syria, and “never, never, never” sanction a potential Israeli strike
against Iran’s nuclear facilities — though he said he could evince
“understanding” for such resorts to force.
Schwarzenberg, who is also the Czech
Republic’s first deputy prime minister, called efforts promoted by
Israel to label Hezbollah a terrorist organization nonsensical, useless
and part of a “propaganda war.” And he backed demands within the
European Union to label Israeli products made in East Jerusalem and the
West Bank as having originated in the “Occupied Palestinian
Territories.”
An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said the
Czechs were good enough friends that Israel would see the criticism as
constructive.
“To be honest, with the settlements in the
last time even we have problems,” Schwarzenberg told The Times of Israel
in the interview, held at the King David Hotel just before he headed
back to Prague after a short visit. “Especially when the government
declared they would start to build in one certain area” — E1 — “which is
the only connection between Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories.”
Last December, as a declared punitive measure
for the Palestinians’ successful bid to upgrade their status at the UN
to nonmember observer state, Israel announced
plans to develop
the sensitive E1 area east of Jerusalem. E1 is located between the
Maaleh Adumim settlement and the capital, and many in the international
community believe Israeli building there would drive a problematic wedge
between the northern and southern flanks of the West Bank and thus
render a contiguous Palestinian sovereign entity in the West Bank nearly
impossible. Numerous countries, notably including the US, sharply
criticized the construction plans. The Israeli ambassadors in Britain,
Brazil, France, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Denmark, Italy, Egypt
and the EU were summoned for sharp dressing-downs.
For Schwarzenberg, the near-universal
condemnation was a matter “of course,” since “the international
community requests a two-state solution, and the Palestinian side will
never agree without having their part of Jerusalem.”
“Building on E1 would be obnoxious for Israel
itself,” Schwarzenberg added. “One shouldn’t do things unnecessary just
to provoke everybody around, which sometimes is a strong temptation. I
succumb to that temptation sometimes too myself, I admit it. But I hope
the fathers of the State of Israel would be wise enough not to do it.”
Prague adheres to the EU-wide policy that
recognizes Israel in its pre-1967 lines but considers territories beyond
the Green Line to be “occupied,” Schwarzenberg reiterated.
On Tuesday morning, Israeli media reported that Netanyahu had de-facto
frozen new construction in the West Bank amid a renewed US-led push to resume peace talks. In recent months, Jerusalem has increasingly
regarded the Czech Republic as Europe’s Canada, the one country that
stood with the Israeli government through thick and thin, supporting
even policies and positions unpopular with the rest of the world.
Prague was the
only European nation
that voted against the Palestinians’ UN upgrade last year, with Italy
and France voting in favor and Germany, Great Britain and the
Netherlands abstaining.
After the November 29 vote, Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu promptly called his Czech counterpart, Petr Nečas,
and thanked him for Prague’s “courageous” stance. “History has shown us
time and again that what is right is not what is popular, and if there
is a people in the world who can appreciate that, it’s the people of
your country,” Netanyahu told Nečas a few days later in Prague.
“The Czech Republic stands out as one of
Israel’s best European friends,” confirmed Efraim Inbar, the director of
Bar-Ilan University’s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, in
a paper entitled “Israel Is Not Isolated” published in March.
In the interview, Schwarzenberg, who has been
foreign minister since 2010 (after a first term from 2007 until 2009),
confirmed his government’s staunch friendship with Israel. Yet he made
clear that Prague was by no means willing to agree with Israel on
everything.
For instance, Schwarzenberg refused to publicly back Jerusalem over
two airstrikes
the Israeli Air Force reportedly carried out in Syria over the weekend
to prevent Iranian-produced Fateh-110 missiles from falling into the
hands of Hezbollah.
“You can never, as a responsible minister of
foreign affairs, support what’s done against international law. And to
attack [targets on foreign territory], you can never support it, as I
have never supported, let’s say, American airstrikes in Pakistan,”
Schwarzenberg said. “But I perfectly understand those who do it.”
The Czech minister took a similar approach
regarding a potential Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities:
Prague might appreciate why Jerusalem would do it, but it cannot
officially sanction it. “Because to make an aggression, attack a country
— you should never, never, never support it. But you can understand
it,” he said in English.
He himself has occasionally done “things which
I knew are not according to the law,” Schwarzenberg admitted, adding
that after checking his conscience he nonetheless considered them to
have been the right course of action. “But that’s not to establish as a
principle that I would say such deeds are okay.”
Every government has to take responsibility
for its actions; no other nation, especially one that isn’t directly
involved, is entitled to approve actions that contradict international
law, he said.
Asked why he could not simply say that Israel
has the right to defend itself, by itself, against any essential threat,
the minister said he could do precisely that. “Everybody has the right
to defend itself. So far that’s easy and I can repeat it, too,” he
responded. “That’s not the problem. The problem is when is [Iran] an
essential threat?”
It is a mistake to call the current government
in Tehran genocidal, the 75-year-old Prague native added. “For the
moment, they didn’t commit any genocide. Let’s be careful with this
expression. I know what the Shoah was. I’m an old man, I know what it
was,” he said. “For the moment, the Iranian regime has done lots of
mischief in the world, [including] executing people, but it didn’t
commit any genocide.”
But does Israel have the right to ensure
Tehran won’t even get the chance to think about wiping Israel off the
map? “That’s where the problems start,” Schwarzenberg replied, adding
that any decision about a military intervention is up to the conscience
of the Israeli government.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Yigal
Palmor declined to respond to Schwarzenberg point by point, but said the
criticisms were well intentioned, indicating they would not damage
ties.
“We love our Czech friends very dearly. And we
have always appreciated their great qualities, such as courage, honesty
and good sense of humor,” Palmor said. “We believe that the Czechs are
such true good friends that they have earned the right to speak their
mind even if we happen to disagree with them. A friend in need is not
just a friend indeed, but is a friend whose words are always
appreciated, be they in praise or in criticism.”
Labeling Hezbollah a terrorist group? ‘That belongs to the propaganda war’
Schwarzenberg dismissed efforts to pressure
the EU into designating Hezbollah a terrorist organization as
unpractical and meaningless.
“This is a real problem because Hezbollah on
one side is a military organization, which does quite a lot of mischief,
be it… on the Israeli frontier, be it now in Syria,” he said. “On the
other hand, it is in a theoretically sovereign state recognized as
political party.”
The fact that Hezbollah officials are members
of the Lebanese government further complicates matters, he explained.
“What should my ambassador do when he is in Beirut and he comes to a
reception? Say ‘No minister, you’re a terrorist, I don’t speak to you’?
This labeling makes not a lot of sense. It belongs to the propaganda
war.”
As long as Hezbollah is recognized in Lebanon
as a legitimate party, it is difficult for other countries to label it
as a terrorist organization, Schwarzenberg opined. “The facts are one
thing, but their legal status is another thing.”
Israel, the US, the UK, the Netherlands and
Bahrain, among others, have added the Shiite group to their lists of
terrorist organizations, but the EU has so far refused to do so.
Since a Bulgarian police investigation earlier
this year blamed Hezbollah for a July 18, 2012, terrorist attack in
Burgas that killed five Israelis and a Bulgarian, calls have grown
louder for the EU to rethink its stance, yet doing so requires unanimity
among the 27 member states. Officially labeling Hezbollah a terrorist
entity would significantly hamper the organization’s ability to operate.
“One can have different views on what is the
best solution,” Schwarzenberg said about individual EU states having
blacklisted Hezbollah. “I have my doubts about it, if the step is
useful.”
However, the EU would surely recognize
Hezbollah as a terrorist organization if the Shiite group continued to
carry out attacks on European soil, he said.
Labeling settlement products? ‘A legitimate request’
The EU may also be moving toward
enacting guidelines
that would require retailers to label Israeli goods produced beyond the
pre-1967 lines as not originating in Israel. Several EU states,
including the UK and the Netherlands, have
declared their support for such measures; the South African government introduced similar steps recently.
While Schwarzenberg said the issue is not
currently discussed in his country, he is principally in favor: “I think
it is a legitimate request.”
Israel vehemently opposes any efforts to
impose labeling requirements for settlement goods, arguing that such
policies are discriminatory in that they single out Israel while
ignoring territorial disputes elsewhere.
"In other parts of the world they don’t have occupied territories,” Schwarzenberg replied.
After a long battle, Pretoria gave in to demands of the local Jewish community
and agreed that these labels would designate products as coming from
“Israeli settlements” in either East Jerusalem or the West Bank, as
opposed to mentioning the words “Palestinian” or “occupation.”
Schwarzenberg, on the other hand, suggested
that such labels indicate products come from the “Occupied Palestinian
Territories,” because “that’s the internationally recognized [term].” He
urged, “Call it what it is. Always tell the truth, it’s the best
policy.”
