Taipei Times: Before the Iraq war, some analysts argued that the end of the Saddam Hussein regime would be conducive to Israeli-Palestinian peace. Do you consider this argument viable now that the war is over?
Ruth Kahanoff: We hope the latest development will be conducive and we hope that at least the moderate Arab countries will be more supportive of a peace process that will bring stability to the region, which is in the interest of all the countries in the region. After the Iraq war, this interest is even stronger, to have peace and stability. I think the Arab countries have a lot that they can contribute in order to achieve this goal by encouraging the moderate Palestinian Authority leadership to deal with all the radical elements among the Palestinians who oppose any peaceful solution and use terror in order to undermine any peace efforts.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
TT: Do you think that the recent surge of violence contradicts the optimistic view that we've seen the light of peace at the end of the tunnel following the Red Sea summit and the release of the "road map"?
Kahanoff: We are cautiously optimistic. But we don't see it as a contradiction, because recent history has shown that whenever the peace plan is on the table and whenever peace gets new and positive momentum, the attempts by those radical elements in the Palestinian camp, especially those organizations like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, will be on the rise. These groups have clearly and publicly said that what they want is the destruction of Israel. A Hamas spokesman said just a few days ago that they would not stop their activities until the last Jew leaves Israel. So it's quite clear to us that whenever there is such a momentum, they step up their efforts in order to undermine any kind of negotiations, compromises or progress in the peace talks. So we were not surprised. We were disappointed.
This is why we keep stressing that what is most urgent now is to take action against terror, to dismantle these infrastructures, to arrest some of these leaders, and to stop these incitements in the official Palestinian media and in the textbooks. Since not much has been happening in this direction from the Palestinian Authority, we have to take actions ourselves against some of those radical militants. It's something any responsible government would have done to prevent other constant attacks at home. We still have hopes. And we are still cautiously optimistic.
But we know the road is tough, full of ups and downs. Whenever we move forward, those attempts by the radicals will become even stronger.
TT: What could Israel do to help promote the peace process, especially considering the second armed intifada was arguably triggered by Ariel Sharon's provocative tour to the al-Aqsa/Temple Mount complex in Jerusalem on Sept. 28, 2000.
Kahanoff: Oh, this is widely believed in the Arab side mainly. This is because of Arab attempts to find an excuse for peace. But we have provided the documents that have shown that this intifada was planned before and was just waiting for some kind of excuse. At least one Palestinian minister has said it clearly in an interview about a year ago.
As to what we have to do, of course we have to do our share. We have committed ourselves. Prime Minister Sharon has committed himself to the road map, saying he's ready for painful concessions. The first step we've taken is dismantling illegal outposts by settlers mainly in the West Bank. The Israeli military is taking actions dismantling those outposts even at the price of confronting our own people. But this is being done at this very moment.
We are ready to move ahead with our commitment, but first of all we have to see the terror is being contained. Since this Aqaba summit, we had a lot of terror attacks against our civilians and soldiers. The biggest one was the explosion of the bus in Jerusalem last week. On Wednesday, several Palestinians infiltrated the state of Israel, shot at a car of an innocent family that was returning from a wedding in Jerusalem, killed a seven-year-old girl and badly wounded her three-year-old sister. And that continues. You also don't hear about the dozens of cases of suicide bombers who were stopped by our security forces on their way to their mission in the last two weeks.
We feel that the threat of terror is really real, and that something has to be done urgently about it. Because as long as it's going on like this, no responsible government will go ahead with further concessions because it'd be giving up to terror, and no public in a democratic country would widely support moving ahead in such a process that demands drastic concessions.
Prime Minister Sharon kept saying that he's ready for many compromises and concessions, but not to compromise the basic security of the people of Israel. The majority of the people in Israel will follow. It's the same majority of people who basically are ready for a "two-state solution" and for peaceful coexistence with our Palestinian neighbors, that we believe eventually will happen because both people desperately need it and both our people have suffered so much.
TT: How has the deteriorated security situation in Israel affected exchanges between Taiwan and Israel?
Kahanoff: They were affected to a certain degree. The business people are still coming. We are signing a lot of visas these days for the business people. Especially during the SARS period when our people could not come here, a lot of people came from Taiwan. The number of business travelers increased. We have tourists coming, mainly religious, Christian tourists. But obviously the situation in Israel has affected the number [of travelers from Taiwan]. We hope it's just temporary and they'll come back.
TT:To what extent do you think Israel-Taiwan ties can be enhanced in economic, security and political terms?
Kahanoff: We are having quite substantial cooperation in the economic, cultural, science and technology fields. I feel that there are a lot of things to do. In the ways that our two economies are complementary, we can combine some of the new ideas, the new technologies developed in Israel ... with Taiwanese talent, production and marketing so that we can achieve a lot together.
We are also exploring ways to cooperate in the field of agriculture. There's a great interest among Israelis in the aquiculture here in Taiwan. We've been learning from their achievements and the know-how here in this field.
In the field of culture, we hope once things calm down in Israel, we can have more tourists coming to see Israel and more tourists to come here.
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