by michael soltys
Herald staff

Presidential visits are always important but some presidents are more important than others and Israeli President Shimon Peres starting his official visit to Argentina today is certainly a case in point — suffice it to say that he is the only Israeli president ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Shimon Peres is the occasion for this interview with Israeli Ambassador Daniel Gazit but he could never be the subject because his lifetime of achievements would be too vast for this space — any corner of Israeli history not touched by his 86 years of life is hardly worth knowing.

Interviews with most ambassadors are almost invariably dominated by an upbeat view of commercial and cultural relations with Argentina but Gazit cannot permit himself this luxury when his country’s very existence is at stake. First and foremost, he feels that his duty as a diplomat is to explain Israel’s existential plight within the Middle East situation.

Israel yearns for peace but it takes “two to tango,” says Gazit, and the trend to the right manifested in Likud’s election victory early this year reflects the disappointment of Israeli public opinion over the developments in the Gaza strip and the lack of any other side of the negotiating table. Everybody in Israel was ready to make concessions for peace — the only question was how many. And everybody was disposed to accept two states, a Palestine alongside Israel, but a Palestinian state could only be created with an absolutely guaranteed demilitarization — two states thus look very distant on the horizon.

But peace is the self-interest of every Israeli, who does not need international pressure to be reminded of that fact, Gazit continued — that international pressure should be applied to terrorism.

Asked about settlements, Gazit (a rare case here of an Israeli ambassador actually born in Israel) replied that there was no change — there would be no new ones and Israel was even prepared to evacuate more with the right encouragement but at the same time the settlements should not be seen as an obstacle to peace and the Israeli envoy certainly would not define 3,000-year-old Israeli Jerusalem as a “settlement” like some Arab voices.

But for Gazit one country above all threatens peace — Iran (also an issue here as the prime suspect for the terrorist bombings of the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and the AMIA Jewish community centre in 1994). Gazit has one word for this one country: “Beware.” The world should look at what Iran says but also does — only last week two Iranian vessels were caught shipping missiles to Hezbollah terrorists and another taking munitions and instructors to Yemen. The Israeli diplomat takes such direct threats more seriously than Iran’s general anti-Semitism and Shoah denial or even the nuclear threat. Gazit does not buy Iran’s story of developing nuclear energy for a future without oil and sees no resemblance between Iranian nuclear facilities and peaceful reactors but at the same time he does not see the main danger as Tehran firing off nuclear warheads against Tel Aviv or New York — the real danger is anonymously handing over tactical nuclear devices to suicidal terrorist groups. He also sees the concentration of Iranian nuclear technology in the sacred Shi’ite city of Qom as diabolical, seeking to provoke Islamic outrage if it is destroyed in retaliation.

The Herald asked Gazit if growing worldwide apprehension about Iran might not justify a more optimistic Israeli approach to the United Nations — at best an Israeli initiative against terrorism might garner more sympathy and at worst it would serve to expose double standards. But Israel needs rather more than such an exposure, Gazit replied. Israel’s relationship with the UN is complex — it cannot live with or without the international organization so heavily weighted against Zionism.

When Gazit named the main issue in the Middle East as extremism against moderation, the Herald asked him to name the moderates in the Arab world. He singled out Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas as somebody convinced that more concessions could be obtained from Israel without terror than with but he lacked power. Also Egypt and Jordan but the chronic fundamentalist threat to Cairo moderation mounted by the Islamic Brotherhood has recently been boosted by Hezbollah (including attacks on tourists) while Jordan has to watch its Syrian neighbour. Hezbollah has recently formed part of the Lebanese government, which from now on must therefore take responsibility for any terrorist actions by the extremist organization, Gazit insisted.

Yet the fact that Gazit has to give priority to Israel’s struggle for survival over commercial and cultural relations, unlike all his diplomatic colleagues, does not mean that these commercial and cultural ties do not exist. There are Israeli investments in Tierra del Fuego (electronics), San Juan and La Plata — Israeli knowhow to assist irrigation in Argentina from its own vastly successful experience (including the generation of rain clouds) is so well-known by now that it needs no further advertising, says Gazit.

Argentine soap operas have been a sensation in Israel for over 15 years (the first starred Luisa Kuliok), thus inspiring many Israelis to learn Spanish. At a higher echelon of culture, Argentine-Israeli versatile musician Daniel Barenboim, who starred in the recent 20th anniversary ceremonies for the fall of the Berlin Wall, is an impressive symbol of the ties between the two countries.

Yet these ties have not been uppermost in Gazit’s mission, which began last December — second to the primordial task of explaining Israel and the Middle East to Argentines comes looking after the Jewish community here, still one of the largest in the world despite the exodus to Israel in the immediate wake of the 2001-2 economic meltdown. Thousands went to Israel in those days and a few hundred still move each year but many have also returned. Asked if his Embassy understood its task to be in any way a recruiting agency for the Law of the Return, Gazit said that the Embassy was strictly neutral but Israel’s policy was to encourage Jewish people to come home. But an important part of the Embassy’s work was keeping Jewish people happy in Argentina, looking after schools, synagogues, AMIA, etc. Furthermore, Embassy policy was not only to take Jews to Israel — it was vital to invite others because they invariably understood Israel much better afterwards.

The Peres presidential visit to Brazil and Argentina is to encourage ties at all levels and for that reason it is being accompanied by a 40-strong business mission combining the cream of Israeli industry. In this context Gazit notes Israel’s timely ratification of its free trade agreement with Mercosur. Peres will be meeting his hostess colleague President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, heading an economic seminar this morning with Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana, addressing CARI (the Argentine Council for International Relations) tomorrow morning and touching base with the Jewish community.

This forthcoming visit is not the only important one in Gazit’s year — earlier this year Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman visited Argentina. A foreign minister with a higher profile than most around the world and not necessarily positive. But this helped to make his visit a positive surprise because Lieberman came across here as far more reasonable than his generally negative overseas image. His basic message was that Israel wanted peace but needed a partner to negotiate it — Lieberman would love to be proved wrong in his misgivings. A sentiment shared by all Israelis with no real discussions over the need for peace — only the concessions, which cover almost the whole spectrum except Israel’s right to exist.