Ties with Israel possible: Legislators
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.