Asaf Shariv, consulate general of Israel in New York, spoke to approximately 90 students, professors and locals yesterday about the current state of affairs in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, as part of the Mario Einaudi Center’s Foreign Policy Distinguished Speaker Series in the Biotech building. Shariv noted that so long as Hamas’ leaders in Gaza refuse to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, any peace resolution in the foreseeable future is doubtful.

“In Gaza, there is a government that won’t even speak with Israel,” Shariv said. “At the very bare minimum; Israel wants to get the Palestinian leadership to recognize it as a legitimate state.”

Let’s make peace: Consulate general of Israel in New York Asaf Shariv speaks in a lecture entitled “The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process: A View from the Inside” yesterday.Yet, this is a task that may be difficult. For one, according to Shariv, Israel has tried to concede certain provisions to Gaza’s leadership in the past — hoping that this would spark peace negotiations — only to receive no reciprocation from the other side. Shariv explained that in August 2005, the Israeli government pulled 10,000 citizens out of settlements in Gaza and removed military checkpoints leading into the territory in an act of good will to Gaza’s government and people. Though violence against Israel ceased temporarily, regular mortar rocket attacks resumed within a few short months, prompting Israel to impose the controversial blockade in July 2007.

“Everyone said that if Israel stopped settlement activity, the Palestinians would agree to peace talks,” Shariv stated, “Well, we gave them time [to enter peace negotiations]. Even after rockets were fired into Israel in 2005, we didn’t create the blockade in Gaza until July 2007.”

Another impediment to peace is the growing Iranian threat. Iran holds great influence in Gaza and would not want to see a Palestinian state if it meant recognizing a Jewish one, according to Shariv.

“If we were to get close to an agreement in Gaza … Iran would launch rockets from Syria [for example] to prevent it,” he explained, “Iran does not want to see a Palestinian state because they do not believe in an Israeli state.”

Thirdly, any viable Palestinian state would need to be a unified one, which would mean bridging the divide between the West Bank’s Fatah movement and Hamas in Gaza — something which does not look likely to occur in the near future. Though Shariv praised Salam Fayyad and other Fatah leaders’ desire to work towards peace, he doubted that Hamas’ leadership has the same priorities.

“Hamas has kicked out and denounced the leaders in Fatah,” Shariv said, “I think that I would have a better chance of surviving in Gaza than Salam Fayyad. If Fayyad stepped in Gaza, he would be killed.”

Shariv also defended some of Israel’s more controversial actions. When an audience member questioned whether Israel was concerned about the conditions inside Gaza given the current blockade, Shariv emphasized that although he was troubled by the circumstances within the territory, Israel would endanger its citizens if it were to open the border. He questioned whether the international condemnation of the blockade was due at least in part to unfair prejudice towards Israel.

“You never heard anybody in the international community complaining about Egypt’s [current] blockade against Gaza, only Israel’s. We have no choice, we can’t open the border for risk to ourselves,” he stated.

Shariv expressed a similar sentiment regarding the security fence that currently encloses the West Bank.

“Before the security fence, we had over 1,000 casualties from West Bank terrorist activity,” he explained, “there have been 3 since the fence.”

Despite these successes, the unpopularity of Israel’s defense strategies has raised cause for concern among Jewish leaders and Israeli activists that point to a growing level of anti-Semitism worldwide.

“We were given the opportunity to have lunch with [Shariv] along with CIPAC and other Jewish student leaders and we were able to talk with him on an intimate level about how to promote Israeli awareness on campus amidst a recent new wave of anti-Semitism,” said Adam Fisher, the Hillel Executive Board’s Israel Awareness Chair, “We need to stress Israeli culture in order to bring Israel to a more humane level removed from the conflict.”

Heike Michelsen, director of programming for the Einaudi Center, and the overseer of the speaker series, was pleased with the lecture.

“The goal of this lecture, and the entire series, is to explore all of these important issues that are shaking us and have speakers come in and address them from very different perspectives,” she said, “I think that we accomplished that today.”

Michelson hopes that this lecture along with future ones will spark debate and awareness among students about global issues.

“What’s most important to us though is that we hope that in bringing these people, we are able to attract students and open up the issues for the students,” she said.

As for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the world may have to hope for “a miracle” to see any renewed talks in the near future.

“It will probably take a miracle for [a peace resolution] to happen in the neat future,” Shariv said, “But, as David Ben Gurion once said: in the Middle East, if you don’t believe in miracles, you’re not a realist.”