Knesset speaker: There has never before been such a manifestation of support for Israel in Europe.
By ETGAR LEFKOVITSdalia itzik in france 248 88(photo credit: AP)
Knesset speaker Dalia Itzik urged a group of hundreds of European parliamentarians at the end of the week to act against the threat posed by a nuclear Iran, saying that Europe had a historic responsibility to the security of the Jewish People.
The call to action, which was held just days after Barack Obama was elected the next president of the United States, comes amid Israeli concern that the next US administration will take a softer line against the Islamic Republic.
"What more needs to happen in order for Europe to stand at the head of doers against Iran?" Itzik told a conference of more than 400 pro-Israel legislators from across Europe and beyond.
"Europe has a moral responsibility to prevent Holocaust denial by Iran, and a historic responsibility to the security of the Jewish people," she said.
In revealing remarks, the Knesset speaker, a member of the ruling Kadima Party, also suggested that the longtime claim of the Left and much of the international community for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - land for peace - was not the essence to the dispute.
"The majority of this conflict is not a territorial one and therefore it is hard to find a solution to it," she said.
The call to act to prevent a nuclear Iran was met with general approval by the legislators, who, in verbose responses, likewise stressed the need for a just solution to the conflict in the Middle East, based on democracy and two states living side by side in peace.
"Any threat to a democracy is a threat to all democracies," said Gunnar Hokmark, a member of the European Parliament from Sweden and chairman of European Friends of Israel, which organized the 36-hour event. "It is a common cause to all of us to defend democracies," he said.
The apolitical Brussels-based organization was established in 2006 by supporters of Israel in the European Parliament and the parliaments of the EU's 27 member states.
The weekend conference, which was attended by more than 400 parliamentarians from 42 nations in Europe and beyond, was billed as the largest Israeli policy conference ever held in Europe.
The gathering, which was held in a central Paris pavilion and included seven members of the Knesset and Israel's Ambassador to France Danny Shek, came just two months before the planned formal start of the 2009 dialogue between EU and Israel for closer cooperation after years when Israel had frosty relations with some Europeans countries due to their past imbalance in dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"There has never before been such a manifestation of support for Israel from so many parliamentarians from so many countries in Europe," Hokmark said.
"Friends of Israel were not always around [in Europe] when it was in Israel's interest," concurred Rudy Salles, the vice president of the French Assemblee Nationale.
"Europe with good relations with Israel is a better Europe," said Marek Siwiec, EFI vice chairman and vice president of the European Parliament from Poland.
During the conference, the legislators and ministers attending the event also heard an impassioned plea for support from Noam Schalit, the father of the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit who has been held by Hamas in Gaza for the last two and half years, as well as a politically sensitive session on UNRWA, the UN body charged with dealing with the Palestinian refugees, that was presented by the International Israel Allies Caucus Foundation.
