The first ministerial-level meeting between Israel and the Palestinian Authority since the establishment of the Netanyahu government was held Wednesday in Tel Aviv, with Vice Premier Silvan Shalom and PA National Economy Minister Bassim Khoury attending a conference on economic peace organized by the Peres Center for Peace, Tel Aviv University and the German Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
The two sat next to each other and shook hands when meeting and departing, and though the Palestinian representative made sure to note that it was by no means a bilateral meeting, both sides reiterated their governments' desire for peace. Shalom spoke first, greeting the audience of foreign diplomats and guests in English before moving over to Hebrew for the main portion of his speech.
"I think it is the first time that there is an engagement between a Palestinian minister and an Israeli minister from the new government here, and I would like to believe that it is the first, but not the last. Let's hope that it will bring real engagement between Abu Mazen [PA President Mahmoud Abbas] and Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu," he said, adding that "I would like to believe that after four months, the time has come [for] the first meeting between both leaders [to] take place immediately and, as we say, the sooner the better," said Shalom. Referring to the conference's title, "What Comes First? Economic Peace and the Two-State Solution," Shalom said he felt this was the wrong way to present the situation. The assumption that economic peace and political dialogue are mutually exclusive is exactly the problem with the Palestinian thinking, he said. "There is no reason in the world for the two processes not to take place at the same time." Shalom reiterated Netanyahu's dedication to the idea of economic peace and the conviction that it could lead to real peace in the region. "The fact that he founded a ministerial committee, chaired by him, and dedicated to removing impediments to joint projects and improving the lives of Palestinians, shows that this government is serious about moving ahead," he said. The vice premier said that when he looked at the past, he was frustrated by the lack of action on both sides. He said it was an excess of bureaucracy and security measures, and not ill will, that was to blame for the lack of activity on the part of Israelis, and he called on the Palestinians to return to negotiations. Shalom said he couldn't understand why they continued to refuse to come to the table, and ventured to guess that it was because they were waiting for pressure from the United States to solve their problems for them.
