Intervention at the plenary session on the EU strategy on the situation between Israel and Palestine
The end of the Arab-Israeli conflict would necessarily mean the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This was the prevailing idea, but the Palestinians have not disappeared from Israel and the Occupied Territories and the first lesson to be learned from this war is that there will never be a lasting peace without the creation of a Palestine alongside Israel.
The second lesson is that, having failed to make peace with the secularists of Fatah, Israel will have to negotiate with the Islamists of Hamas.
The third is that the Palestinians of the West Bank, Gaza and Israel have drawn much closer together and that this constitutes a major political defeat for Israel at a time when its internal divisions are deepening.
The fourth lesson of this war is that Israel cannot forever rely on its military advantage when Tel Aviv is within missile range and the Iranians have massed stocks of weapons on its borders.
Peace is an emergency. It is for everyone, but for Israel above all.
