(NEWS) Czech Foreign Minister Expresses Support For Israel

"Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg expressed support for Israel and its effort to solve the Middle East crisis, he said at a meeting with his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman yesterday.

Lieberman informed Schwarzenberg about the resumed peace talks with Palestinians.



Schwarzenberg told reporters that the Czech Republic does not conceal that 'it was, is and will be an ally of Israel in international politics and in Europe.'

This is one of the fundamental lines of Czech foreign policy, he added.

Lieberman said he considers the Czech Republic one of the best and most reliable friends of his country.

He also said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanjahu would visit the Czech Republic next year.

Schwarzenberg said he hopes that the complex talks on peace in the Middle East would continue well 'with God's help.'

Lieberman yesterday also commented on his statements about the Israeli-Palestinian talks.

Lieberman told Premysl Sobotka, chairman of the Senate, the upper house of parliament, that the peace talks provoked high expectations. However, a unilateral pressure on concessions must not be exerted, he added.

Sobotka said the EU should formulate a political stance on Israel on the basis of reality and not its media image.

Lieberman also met Miroslava Nemcova, chairwoman of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of parliament. They debated cooperation on parliamentary level.

Nemcova gave s him an invitation for the chairman of the Israeli parliament Knesset.

'We have also touched upon a possible visit by Netanjahu to the Czech Republic that is being arranged for next year,' Nemcova told CTK, adding that no concrete date had been set yet.

The French news agency AFP quoted Lieberman as saying that the Israeli-Palestinian talks must be based on the exchange of people and territories in relation to Israeli Arabs.



yesterday Lieberman specified that this was his private opinion and not the government's official stance.

Palestinians criticised his statements.

It is necessary to change the approach to talks with Palestinians since the hitherto course gave no results, Lieberman said.

Israel has made all gestures of good will, Lieberman pointed out, referring to long talks and a number of Israeli, American and other foreign politicians who had tried to solve the problem.

Lieberman, leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Is Our Home) party is pushing for the territories inhabited by Israeli Arabs to be exchanged for parts of the Jordan River's west bank to separate Jews from Arabs as much as possible and create an ethnically homogeneous Jewish state.

Seven pro-Palestine activists with banners demonstrated outside the Foreign Ministry headquarters in the Cernin palace on the occasion of Lieberman's visit.

The Czech Republic is one of the strongest allies of Israel in teh EU. Czech diplomacy supports a peaceful solution to the Middle East conflict.

During the Czech EU presidency in the first half of 2009, the Czech Republic was striving for closer relations between the EU and Israel.

Schwarzenberg then admitted that the Czech presidency and the European Commission had different opinions about the developments in Israel and that the views differed in the EU as well.

Former Czech president Vaclav Havel announced last week that he would get involved in the international campaign in support of Israel.

Former Spanish PM Jose Maria Aznar, Havel and other personalities want to promote a better picture of Israel in European and other countries whose inhabitants are more sceptical of Israel than in the United States, for instance." (source)