If Cairo unilaterally decides to alter the peace treaty with Jerusalem, Israel
will ask why sign agreements with other neighbors if these accords are not kept,
Intelligence Agencies Minister Dan Meridor said Monday.
Meridor, speaking
at a press conference organized by The Israel Project, said that “objectively”
there is no reason for either Israel or Egypt to change the peace agreement that
has served both sides for more than 30 years.
“If people are rational and
act for the good of their country, both Israel and Egypt should keep the
agreement,” Meridor said. Meridor added that Israel has had no contact with
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, the party that won the recent parliamentary
elections there.
Regarding Syria, Meridor came out strongly against the
killing taking place there, saying the pictures coming out of that country
needed to shock the world, and that it was impossible to remain silent in face
of the atrocities.
But at the same time, he said, Israel had “no policy”
in terms of trying to effect what was happening inside the country.
“We
can’t do much to interfere inside Syria,” he said, adding that he had no way of
telling who would come after Prime Minister Bashar Assad if he was
toppled.
Meridor said Iran and Hezbollah were actively helping Assad try
to put down the rebellion there, and that breaking up the Iran-Syrian- Hezbollah
alliance would be a “positive” development.
“Can we affect it?” he asked.
“No we can’t.”
Regarding the halted low-level talks with the Palestinians
in Jordan, Meridor bemoaned the Palestinian Authority’s decision to sign a unity
agreement with Hamas in Doha. He called on PA Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
to demonstrate the “courage” to accept a demilitarized Palestinian state, and
that if he did not, it would be “another missed opportunity that will be bad for
us, but worse for them.”
Meridor repeated his position – which is not the
government’s policy – that Israel should “harmonize” its settlement policy with
the diplomatic process, meaning that it should build in the large settlement
blocs that it hopes to retain in any future agreement, but not build everywhere
else in Judea and Samaria.