00:00There were a lot of comments from Congress party saying that Israel is
00:04quote-unquote committing a genocide in Gaza.
00:07We've also seen Kerala Chief Minister Pinaray Vijayam
00:10rebuking the visit of Israeli finance minister to India.
00:16What are your thoughts to these kind of comments?
00:20Well, I think that we have to differentiate between two situations.
00:23Situations in which people are critical, and that's natural.
00:26We should engage with people that are critical to have a conversation.
00:30To understand how they feel, to see whether they get the right information,
00:35whether there is something that we can do in order to change our conduct.
00:38That's completely legitimate.
00:40What I see as absolutely illegitimate is the attempt to put blood labels on Israel, on the Jews.
00:48You know, we've been a people that have been persecuted with blood labels for the last 2,000 years,
00:56since the times of the Roman Empire, in which they saw monotheism as a threat and invented this blood labels.
01:04It's like, you know, the Jews killed Christ and all kinds of Jews that were, you know, brewing,
01:09that were preparing the matzah for the Jewish feasts with blood of Christian children.
01:16All kinds of blood labels, things that are invented, okay?
01:21Israel doesn't have a genocidal intention against the Palestinian people.
01:25We are having a very difficult war in which we are trying to minimize the civilian casualties.
01:31Israel doesn't have a policy of starvation.
01:34Israel actually is the only country in the history of conflict that has been facilitating millions of tons of food to the enemy territory,
01:42more than anybody has done in the past.
01:45So when people try to put blood labels on us, then it's very hard for us to remain silent.
01:52And I think that it's completely illegitimate.
01:55These were some of the very prominent members of the party.
01:59Just in case, just assuming a hypothetical situation, just in case if Congress comes to power,
02:05because you were also foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Israel.
02:08I'm in touch with a lot of leaders in Congress that do not think like the persons that you have mentioned.
02:14And I think that in the Congress Party, there are a lot of sensible people that might have different opinions
02:19that engage in dialogue with us, and we are very happy to engage in that dialogue.
02:24So I think that we shouldn't, you know, paint all of the parties in one color.
02:30I think that there are certain people that are engaging in this kind of rhetoric
02:35that I think is very detrimental to the Indian interest, to reality,
02:42and to a sincere attempt to create a positive dialogue that is also conducive,
02:47and that promotes peace and doesn't promote hate.
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