Bar’s route to peace
SECRETARY-general of the Israeli Labour Party Hilik Bar MK has addressed audiences around Australia, discussing how roadblocks to Middle East peace might be overcome.
SECRETARY-general of the Israeli Labour Party Hilik Bar MK has addressed audiences around Australia, discussing how roadblocks to Middle East peace might be overcome.
Bar, a former deputy speaker of the Knesset, is in the country as a guest of the Australia Israel Labor Dialogue (AILD), a group which seeks to form closer ties between the Israeli Labour Party and the Australian Labor Party (ALP).
Speaking at Sydney’s Central Synagogue on Monday evening – jointly presented by the AILD, the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies and the Zionist Council of NSW – Bar stressed the importance of Israeli political leaders meeting with their Australian counterparts and making sure the Australians have a solid grasp of the realities in Israel.
“They are supportive of Israel, but sometimes not enough,” he said of the ALP.
Discussing the home front, Bar said that one thing the entire political spectrum is united on is “the barbaric terror organisation” faced in Gaza, though devising ways to resolve this threat is where the groups diverge.
He opined that any solutions other than the two-state solution are dangerous, noting both the far right and far left in Israel share an interest in a one-state solution.
“We want to have a respectful divorce from the Palestinians, while the far right and the far left ask for a Catholic marriage with the Palestinians, something that we think is the end again of Zionism,” Bar said.
To reach a two-state solution, he said, concessions will need to be made, and that requires the right leadership on both sides.
“The two leaders right now [Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu] have a lot of problems that prevent them from making the necessary concessions,” he commented.
He said Netanyahu has a difficult time being the right-wing leader who will make a change, because of his own ideology, the values of today’s Likud party, and influences within his Coalition.
He advocated not only for “smart missiles,” referring to the precision of the Israeli Defence Forces, but “smart and accurate diplomacy” as well.
“Both Abu Mazen [Abbas] and Netanyahu should seek right now together to renew the negotiations between them … I believe that if those two leaders will understand what is right to do, they will give it a real shot,” Bar concluded.
PHOEBE ROTH
Hilik Bar speaking in Sydney this week. Photo: Noel Kessel
comments