Ties with Israel possible: Legislators
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
For Indonesia, establishing full diplomatic ties with Israel will only be possible after peace has been reached between Israel and Palestine, lawmakers have asserted.
Ties with Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, are important to Israel, particularly with the latter appearing to be moving toward ending its decades-long dispute with neighboring Palestine, a majority Muslim nation itself.
So speculation was high when foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda secretly met with his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom ahead of the UN General Assembly last week, with some saying that Indonesia might be moving toward establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono affirmed on Sunday that the meeting was intended to further the achievement of full independence for Palestine.
Members of the House of Representatives foreign affairs commission have expressed their support for such approaches but balk at the idea of establishing full ties for the time being.
"Until things work out between Israel and Palestine, where Israel is the aggressor and is occupying Palestinian land, then we cannot consider having diplomatic ties with Israel," said Untung Wahono, chairman of the Islam-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) faction in the House, on Monday.
In order to gain PKS support, President Susilo had promised the party that no diplomatic ties with Israel would be established until Palestine was fully independent, Untung recalled.
The House's approval is mandatory for the establishment of diplomatic relations with a foreign country.
Tough terms were also set by Sutradara Gintings of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Moh. Hatta of the Golkar Party.
"Full diplomatic ties are hardly feasible until after Israel and Palestine make peace," said Sutradara.
A trade or cultural mission pending full relations could be considered, but the focus should be on having full and good relations with all nations of the world that respect each other's sovereignty.
Hatta said that the Palestinian question was one of several issues that Israel needed to resolve first, especially with the Arab governments, before striving for normal ties with non-Arab Muslim nations.
"It would actually be easier for us to decide by seeing how the Arab states respond to Israel. The whole process really depends on Israel itself," Hatta said.
On the establishment of ties that fell short of full diplomatic relations, the former Golkar faction chairman said this would have to be thoroughly discussed.
"We don't want to have full trade with Israel but lose what we have with the Arab states," he said.
The three legislators agreed that the Israel-Palestine question was different from the U.S./Britain-Iraq/Afghanistan situations.
"Israel arbitrarily seized Palestinian land, but the U.S. did not do so with Iraqi land," argued Untung.