Israel Foreign Ministry official praises Trump administration's policies, elaborates on dealing with radicalism

New Delhi [India], March 19 : Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director General Eden Bar Tal has praised the Trump administration's policies calling it "very clear" and urged those criticising the new policies to look at the past on how they failed with all theoretical proposals. He stressed that radicalism must be addressed by de-radicalisation and called it a long process.
In his remarks at the Panel Discussion on beyond the crises; prospects for peace and progress in the Middle East at Raisina Dialogue on Tuesday, he said that the Trump administration will not be fooled by slogans that called the Gaza Strip an open jail and noted that Israel withdrew from Gaza Strip two decades ago.
On being asked about the US strategy under US President Donald Trump, he said, "I think the new administration policies are very clear. Maybe, if somebody can dispute them, but all the ones that are going to criticise the US administration and new ideas and policies must look at the past and see how they failed with all the theoretical proposals. Secondly, I don't think that this administration will be fooled by slogans that we have already on this stage talking about Gaza Strip as an open jail."
"Just to remind the audience that Gaza has a border with Egypt, and I don't hear the honourable colleague on my right stating anything about, you know, for the jail, you need to have walls, but to the best of my memory, there is a border between Egypt and Gaza Strip. Israel withdrew from Gaza two decades ago, so there's no jail and the fact that we continue to supply electricity, water, work, money, and everything else was something that now we are blamed for, and I can't understand how," he added.
He stressed that casualties in the Gaza Strip include active terrorists and called Hamas a "reliable terrorist organisation."
He said, "In the second comment because I cannot really develop an argument about the new policies. I will just mention that something that bothered me on the moral basis. There is casualties or a certain somebody from a number of 40,000 casualties in Gaza Strip, etc. But, facts must be first of all, this is Hamas figures and somebody see in this audience that Hamas is a reliable terrorist organisation that you should buy figures from outside. You wait a little bit further and you find out."
"Secondly, somebody forgot to mention the numbers of terrorists among these 40,000. Let's assume according to Hamas figures that there are at least between 15,000 to 20,000 terrorist activists who raped, burned children in their home after tying them up with the family shoot their mothers in front of the kids, and those guys are dead. So, among the thieves, you know, that you have for the old 40,000 which is also the political number at least half of them are active terrorists," he added.
Asked about Israel's objective in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, he responded, "First of all, General Petraeus described for you the real effects on the ground. Very clear, realistic analysis of the situation. So, we're both sorry that reality doesn't control always good intention and some illusions that were among the elites worldwide. The thought that good intentions can show you positive results. I don't have many things to add to you Patreo's analysis. I would like to emphasise and underline certain principles that are not yet on the table of discussions, important discussions like this one."
"First of all, in order to solve the problem, you have to define what is the underlying problem. What are the roots of the problem? I think that once everybody knows that. It's very easy to choose, I would say easy solutions, but not realistic one. Remember how many decades there are trials and errors and nobody is stopping for a second and asking themselves why didn't work, and there is a simple explanation we just don't want to accept. There is a huge difference between radicals and moderates and the radicals cannot be negotiated in terms of ending something solutions," he added.
He said that issues with radicals cannot be solved overnight or an agreement on paper that does not reflect the reality of the society. He acknowledged that Israel made a terrible mistake by misleading the situation.
He said, "Radicals, they have to win. They are building capacity and they are looking for opportunity. Now, once you want to address that, you need to ask. How do you address the problem of radicalization, and this is something that cannot be solved overnight, cannot be cannot be solved by signing a symbolic agreement on a paper that doesn't reflect the reality of the society, with leaders intentions, plans, and I think it's very hard, mostly for Westerners and we Israeli we did a terrible mistake that Mael said, and we have to be honest and to admit. We made a terrible mistake by misleading the situation. We thought that the economy incentives, improving lives of the people in Gaza will bring us certain prosperity, peace, peace, stability. Israel is out of the Gaza Strip in 2005. So, it's two decades that Israel is out of Gaza Strip. But what we saw is that every contribution made by the West, the international community, any contribution made by taxpayers in Europe, United States, and elsewhere, went into building capacities of terror and that ends in a massacre."
"There is a will, capacity and opportunity, we provided two out of the three. We provided the means by injecting money, supplies, everything into Gaza for so many years and we also were blind and provided opportunity willing if you are not dealing with this factor, you'll never get a result in any radical. It doesn't matter if it's in that part of Asia or our part of Asia. Radicalism must be addressed by de-radicalization, which is a long, long, long process starting with kindergarten school, culture, media, religion institutions, and if you see that in the area, you can see that there are societies in the Middle East that chose to go to the moderate direction and somehow of the radical. And you don't have one solution for all or or one fuel for all. You have to be realistic and and addressing first of all, you need to analyse with who you are dealing with," he added.
He also urged the international community to support the Lebanese government which he said is moving to the moderate. He noted that the process of de-radicalisation takes time as it will need to disarmament of the particular area.
"With the radicals, we have to do two things. First of all, we need to eliminate the, I would say the leadership. So, first of all, after the process of...described, you need to really ask for the process of the de-radicalization, but it takes time and Between now and the and I would say the, the future of area, it will need to disarmament of that particular area. Now about Lebanon you see the opposite. You see that the Lebanese government is moving to the moderate. We encourage the community to support the Lebanese government. The Lebanese army, we think that this is the real point that there is, I would say optimism at the end of the tunnel. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. The international community should encourage the moderate government," he stated.