Oren David was appointed non-resident Israeli Ambassador to Malta in February. He tells Kurt Sansone relations between the two countries have never been so good.
Calm and soft-spoken, Mr David is nothing like his predecessor. The contrast is glaring but, although the aggressive language and mannerisms are no longer present, he does not waver in his defence of Israel’s handling of the Palestinian cause.
It is, perhaps, expected from every Israeli diplomat to champion the country’s side of the story but sitting in the business lounge of the Hilton Hotel, accompanied by his wife, Mr David also talks of his frustration that many democratic Western countries do not show enough solidarity with his country.
“Western democracies should have affinity and show solidarity with Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East,” he says.
It is a frustration that is also directed towards Malta although Mr David admits that relations between the two countries have never been as good as they are today. He does not elaborate but insists that, in the past, Malta did not have “an amount of understanding towards Israel’s needs, constraints, challenges and sacrifices”.
“Bilateral relations today are deep and comprehensive and, for the first time, compatible with how they should have always been,” Mr David says, drawing on the cultural, historical and geographical affinity between both countries.
Brushing aside the Delimara power station controversy last year, when his predecessor protested at the way an Israeli company was treated during the tendering process, Mr David insists relations were not damaged by that incident.
Asked for his assessment of the historical events unfolding in the Arab world, Mr David displays the same caution his country has adopted since the fall of the Tunisian and Egyptian regimes.
“Israel is watching carefully and I hope this will push the region closer to democracy and liberalism,” he says, admitting it was very hard to predict the final outcome.
Focusing on the events in Syria, Israel’s northern neighbour, Mr David says it was worrying and unacceptable for the regime to massacre its own people.
That is as far as he goes in commenting on the revolutions in the Arab world, expressing hope that people will eventually embrace democratic values, tolerance and self-criticism, and bring an end to “the culture of hate”. It is the hate against Israel and Jews that Mr David refers to, which, according to him, is prevalent in the mainstream Arab world.
“How can you cultivate peace when you teach hate and demonise the other part? I am not talking about some fringe groups but mainstream media outlets, politicians, state TV programmes and schools that indoctrinate children against Israel.”
The lament is directed also towards the Palestinians who, he insists, should adopt a desire for peace and accept Israel’s right to exist. He is clear though that the national unity government formed between the rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas is bad news for the peace process.
The two factions had clashed after Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian election. The violence that followed led to an eventual split in the Palestinian territories with Hamas gaining control of Gaza and Fatah running the West Bank.
The international quartet, which includes the EU, has laid down three conditions for the recognition of Hamas: that they acknowledge Israel’s right to exist, they give up violence as a means to achieve their goals and respect all past agreements signed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
“Hamas has rejected these conditions. It is a setback to have them form part of the Palestinian government,” Mr David says. He rules out Hamas’s participation in government as a way of making the extremist group more responsible. Hamas, he says, still call for the total annihilation of Israel and the Jews in their founding charter.
“In 2007, when they took over Gaza, Hamas used their position to launch thousands of rockets into Israel,” he says, adding the group was constantly trying to smuggle in weapons from Syria and Iran.
He says Israel has shown willingness to compromise even if it meant threatening the country’s security but insists the unilateral concessions offered in the past were wrong.
“In 2005, Israel withdrew all its forces from Gaza and uprooted Israelis who had been living in settlements there for decades. Reality showed that, instead of having a peaceful entity in Gaza, we got the contrary: a terrorist, fundamentalist organisation that attacked Israelis with no provocation.”
He rejects the international objection to Israel’s persistence in building controversial settlements around Jerusalem. Analysts argue that the settlement building programme, which was frozen for a time, will only complicate matters further and the move had also been criticised by the Obama Administration in the US.
“The settlements will be dealt with in bilateral negotiations with the Palestinians but first they have to agree on the principle that Israel has a right to exist,” Mr David says, insisting there has to be a clear declaration from the Palestinian Authority.
But if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict looms large over any Israeli ambassador’s mission, Mr David also speaks of his country in glowing terms. “Despite all odds, Israel is at the forefront of innovation in IT and renewable energy and is also a centre for medical research. There are a lot of areas where Israel and Malta can cooperate, including tourism and culture.”
Israel has developed into a vibrant, diversified country with a robust economy, he says, where “life is extraordinarily good”.