In an exclusive interview, Israeli Ambassador to India Reuven Azar warns that without international cooperation, Israel may be forced to take full control of the Gaza Strip to ensure security. Azar shares Israel’s strategic goals including demilitarizing Gaza, recovering hostages, and working with Palestinian partners committed to peace. He highlights ongoing challenges with Hamas and stresses the need for global support to resolve this crisis. Watch full coverage only on Asianet News English.
#IsraeliAmbassador #ReuvenAzar #GazaConflict #Israel #InternationalCooperation #Hamas #MiddleEastCrisis #AsianetNews #ExclusiveInterview #GazaStrip #World
00:00 - Introduction: Context of the Israel-Gaza conflict and interview overview
02:30 - Ambassador Reuven Azar on Israel’s current security concerns
06:00 - The role of international cooperation in resolving the Gaza crisis
09:45 - Israel’s goal to demilitarize the Gaza Strip explained
13:20 - Efforts to recover hostages held by Hamas
17:00 - Challenges posed by Hamas militant group
20:30 - Importance of working with Palestinian partners committed to peace
24:10 - Potential scenario: Israel taking full control of Gaza
28:00 - Ambassador Azar’s appeal for global support and international backing
31:45 - Discussion on the broader Middle East security implications
35:00 - Israel’s diplomatic efforts and peace process updates
38:20 - Ambassador Azar on hope for a peaceful resolution
41:00 - Closing remarks
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#IsraeliAmbassador #ReuvenAzar #GazaConflict #Israel #InternationalCooperation #Hamas #MiddleEastCrisis #AsianetNews #ExclusiveInterview #GazaStrip #World
00:00 - Introduction: Context of the Israel-Gaza conflict and interview overview
02:30 - Ambassador Reuven Azar on Israel’s current security concerns
06:00 - The role of international cooperation in resolving the Gaza crisis
09:45 - Israel’s goal to demilitarize the Gaza Strip explained
13:20 - Efforts to recover hostages held by Hamas
17:00 - Challenges posed by Hamas militant group
20:30 - Importance of working with Palestinian partners committed to peace
24:10 - Potential scenario: Israel taking full control of Gaza
28:00 - Ambassador Azar’s appeal for global support and international backing
31:45 - Discussion on the broader Middle East security implications
35:00 - Israel’s diplomatic efforts and peace process updates
38:20 - Ambassador Azar on hope for a peaceful resolution
41:00 - Closing remarks
🔊 LIKE ➡ SHARE ➡ SUBSCRIBE
Download the Asianet News App now!
Available on Android & iOS
👉 Android:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vserv.asianet&hl=en_IN
👉 iOS:
https://apps.apple.com/in/app/asianet-news-official/id1093450032
For More Updates:
Follow us on our What's app Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va5Bq3yKwqSLSQTxam0r
English: https://newsable.asianetnews.com/
Hindi: https://hindi.asianetnews.com/
Malayalam: https://www.asianetnews.com/
Kannada: https://kannada.asianetnews.com/
Tamil: https://tamil.asianetnews.com/
Telugu: https://telugu.asianetnews.com/
Bengali: https://bangla.asianetnews.com/
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianetNewsa...
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AsianetNewsEN
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NewsTranscript
00:00Is it possible that some of the Gazans can be absorbed in Israel?
00:04Refugees could flee to neighboring countries until peace is restored.
00:09Is there any sort of infighting, I'm trying to understand, in IDF and in Mossad?
00:13The NPT is not a credible organization.
00:16Are we going to see US boots on Gaza?
00:19I'm in touch with a lot of leaders in Congress that do not think like the persons that you have mentioned.
00:25Settlements are in between the East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, just so that there is no territorial continuity.
00:32How come Israel has defeated Hezbollah in a few months, has defeated Iran in 12 days and is not capable of finishing this war?
00:41In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza, not only militarily, but civilian settlements also withdrew, right?
00:47Do you think that you have miscalculated Hamas?
00:50Jerusalem has never been the capital of any state except the state of Israel and the Kingdom of Israel.
01:02On 7th October 2023, Hamas took hundreds of Israelis hostage and unleashed a brutal violence.
01:09India, in fact, was one of the first countries that came out in support of Israel and condemned that dark act.
01:15As we record this interview on 17th of September 2025, the two year anniversary of that dark day is approaching.
01:23Also in the coming days, United Nations General Assembly is going to discuss the Israel-Palestine conflict.
01:30Today, I have the honor to speak with Israel's Ambassador to India, Ambassador Reuven Azzar, on not only the growing ties between India and Israel,
01:40but also on the ongoing Middle East conflict.
01:43And of course, some of the human realities that go beyond the headlines.
01:48Ambassador Azzar, thank you so much for speaking with Asianet News.
01:51It's such a great pleasure to have you here.
01:53Ambassador, I want to start with a very basic, very fundamental question.
01:59Which is, you know, often if anything big happens in terms of violence or strikes or anything like that,
02:07we see two types of narratives taking shape, not only in media outlets, also in literature, in history, books.
02:14One narrative focuses a lot on how Jews from Eastern Europe came to this land and displaced Palestinians.
02:21And of course, the other narrative focuses on how the Jews have been persecuted throughout history.
02:28So I want to get an understanding from you.
02:30Are we not past that debate?
02:32And also, is it only about Palestinian Arabs versus Jews?
02:36Or are we missing out on a bigger picture here?
02:39Well, thank you for that question, Hina.
02:42The main reason that we haven't passed that debate is because the Arab world around us,
02:49many elements in the Arab world, especially in the last few years when radical Islam is rising,
02:55is not willing to accept our presence in the region.
02:59Jews are indigenous to Judea.
03:03That's an historical fact.
03:05It's beyond doubt.
03:07Even in Islamic writings, there are stories about the people of Israel.
03:14But the challenge is that because of this radicalism, many Palestinians are being dragged into a continuous fight against Israel.
03:23And what is also very unfortunate, Hina, is that the international body that is supposed to be neutral
03:32and help to solve this situation is actually very biased against Israel.
03:38with bodies that actually are financed by the UN and their only purpose is to perpetuate the conflict.
03:49Like an organization called UNRWA that is actually perpetuating the refugee status for any Palestinians
03:55that are for some reason hoping to get back to Israel instead of building their own state.
04:03So this bias is creating another layer of difficulty that is prolonging the conflict.
04:11Israel, as you know, has offered very generous offers of peace in the past and unfortunately were rejected.
04:18So we are today facing a situation in which there is a genocidal force, which is Hamas and other terrorist organizations,
04:25backed by another genocidal regime which is the Islamic Republic of Iran
04:30that has been, you know, assisting them with weapons and with finance.
04:37There are other very extreme movements like the Muslim Brotherhood.
04:42So all of these are fueling this will to attack Israel.
04:49And Israel finds itself time and again in a situation that has to defend itself.
04:53And of course, following the 7th of October, the most atrocious attack against Jews since the Holocaust,
04:59Israel found itself in a situation that it could no longer accept the situation
05:03in which a terrorist organization controls a country because the Gaza Strip was actually a Palestinian state
05:11before Israel had to invade it following the 7th of October.
05:14So what is going to be the future of Palestinian self-rules if each time that they assume power,
05:21they use it not to build their own state, but to try to exterminate our state.
05:27At the end of the day, we will have to, you know, fight these radicals.
05:34And if we want to give the Palestinians a chance to have peace and, you know,
05:39get a leadership that is more conducive and more tolerant and more pragmatic.
05:44Now, my question to you, Ambassador, is that Qatar has long been a mediator in ceasefire negotiation.
05:48Not only ceasefire negotiations, I want to focus on hostage negotiations
05:51because still we have a lot of hostage in custody of Hamas and we need to get them out.
05:56Right. So my question to you is that Qatar, I mean, definitely in 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza.
06:02Not only militarily, but civilian settlements also it withdrew, right?
06:06Do you think that you have miscalculated Hamas?
06:09Because Qatar has been providing financial aid to Hamas
06:13and Israel has been saying that it wanted to continue with that.
06:16It wanted to allow it because it wanted to alleviate the humanitarian crisis.
06:19But do you think that for all these years, 17, 18 years, you have miscalculated Hamas?
06:24Absolutely. I think we have underestimated the level of the threat.
06:28We weren't willing to confront this entity because we were busy trying to build our country.
06:36You know, democracies have a certain character.
06:40You try to minimize the periods of war so you can thrive in times of peace.
06:46We've been postponing dealing with this situation in Gaza, trying to calm it in any way we can,
06:52even in ways that were controversial, just to, you know, refrain from going to war.
06:59Now, you know, this situation is going on for two years.
07:04And people are asking how come Israel has defeated Hezbollah in a few months,
07:09has defeated Iran in 12 days, and is not capable of finishing this war once and for all.
07:16And the answer is very simple. First of all, we have the hostages.
07:19We don't want to sacrifice in the course of defeating Hamas.
07:24The second is that we are talking here about a very complicated, dense urban warfare,
07:32in which you have two million people that are being used by Hamas as human shield.
07:37So Israel could have actually, in two weeks, completely erased the Gaza Strip if it wanted to do so.
07:45But we don't have genocidal intentions against the Palestinians.
07:49Contrary to what some reports in the UN are trying to insinuate.
07:54So we have been doing this very slow, very slowly.
07:58We were using some military pressure and the negotiations.
08:01And that's why we legitimized Qatar.
08:04Because we saw at some point that they could be conducive in bringing hostages back.
08:09What happened actually, you know, was that Qatar overplayed this hand.
08:15And instead of helping us, you know, sealing a deal that was on the table until two or three months ago
08:22to bring half of the hostages, they actually helped Hamas to get rid of international pressure
08:28by this so-called starvation campaign that they launched, that was full of deceit.
08:34Now, there is suffering and hunger in some parts of the Gaza Strip.
08:38But this, you know, starvation or accusation of Israeli starving population in purpose,
08:47it's completely, completely false.
08:49And the Qataris, instead of helping us and the Americans to put pressure on Hamas,
08:53they relieved the pressure on Hamas and they showed their true face.
08:57And therefore, we had no choice but not to target them, to target the terrorists,
09:02the ones who are rebuking time and again offers to bring this war to an end.
09:11Right.
09:12You talked about the starvation in Gaza and the pictures and the images, visuals that we're seeing.
09:19Do you think that Israel is kind of dealing with this information warfare?
09:24Because we saw that during Operation Sindhur as well in India.
09:28I mean, social media was flooded with a lot of narratives.
09:31There was a picture which went viral of a child in Gaza.
09:35He was absolutely frail, malnutrition.
09:38What is the reality behind all these pictures?
09:41Are they absolutely staged or is there some truth to that?
09:45Well, those kids are real kids, but they weren't suffering from starvation.
09:50They were suffering from pre-existing conditions, very difficult diseases.
09:55So the pictures were manipulated.
09:58As you could see very clearly, any person with some kind of, you know, critical eyes could see
10:05that their family members were not starving.
10:08So it means that these were used as a tool to put pressure on Israel or to relieve pressure from Hamas.
10:17And the result is there.
10:19This war is getting prolonged.
10:21What we want to achieve was set up very clearly in the first day following this terrible attack.
10:28is to prevent the situation in which Hamas can rearm a new group in Gaza and that we bring back hostages.
10:36So as long as Hamas refuses to do that, and as long as the international community fails to put pressure on their leaders,
10:45we'll have to continue this war to take over Gaza City.
10:49And if even after that they don't cooperate, we'll have to take the entire Gaza Strip.
10:55Ambassador, I have a very, again, very fundamental question.
10:58I mean, when in 1947 United Nations partition plan was there,
11:04then Israel definitely accepted it saying that, yes, we are in for a two-state solution.
11:10Now it does not aim for it.
11:12Now my question to you is that if not a two-state solution, where is all of this going to end?
11:18Well, as I told you before, Hina, there was a Palestinian state in Gaza before this war.
11:23So the greatest blow against the Palestinian statehood was what Hamas did.
11:28We withdrew from the Gaza Strip in order to give a chance to Palestinian self-rule,
11:32in order to empower the Palestinians to see, you know, because we don't want to rule them.
11:38What will happen now is that we will have, in a very, very slow process,
11:43to try to regain trust, to create a relationship with the Palestinian leadership
11:50that is willing to accept Israel, is willing to negotiate, is willing to accept our offers.
11:57Because for the last 100 years, with very short periods of time of exception, they haven't done that.
12:04So, you know, you can have a vision, that's okay, but we have to connect the vision to some realities on the ground.
12:14And those realities mandate us to, first of all, defeat the radicals, remove them from the field,
12:23and give a chance to the Palestinians to build their lives in a decent way.
12:27Now, I want to talk about settlements, the even expansion plan which is going on.
12:32Now, a lot of people are saying that the settlements are in between the East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank.
12:38Yeah.
12:39Just so that there is no territorial continuity.
12:41And then this entire plan of two-state solution falls flat.
12:46My question to you is that, before 7th of October 2023, do you think there was the slightest possibility there
12:53to actually reduce the settlements in the West Bank, so that, you know, give a chance to actually build trust with Palestinians?
13:02Israel has freezed the settlements many times in the past.
13:05Hmm.
13:06But what we saw is that we are getting the opposite result.
13:10Each time that Israel puts an offer on the table and shows that it's willing to give up its interests and its rights,
13:20we have indigenous rights, you know.
13:23It's not against international law if a Jew lives in Judea.
13:27It's like saying that an Indian cannot live in India, okay?
13:32So, even if, you know, we are one and only Jewish state and we suffer from a situation in which we are, you know,
13:44we are alone in the UN against a group of 57 Muslim countries and 22 Arab states, it cannot change history.
13:53Okay?
13:54And if the Palestinians are not willing to accept our offers and they sort of get them as a sign that Israel is weak,
14:03then we have no choice.
14:04We have to continue actually exercising our rights until they get to a conclusion that actually time is working against them
14:14and that waiting and rebuking our peace offers is not a good thing for them.
14:18And therefore, we have a very clear policy.
14:20We are going to continue exercising our rights in our ancestral homeland until the Palestinians show some seriousness
14:29when it comes to getting into a negotiation and into a peaceful resolution that will end this conflict and not maintain it for eternity.
14:39Are we going to see U.S. boots on Gaza or in West Bank in order to stabilize the situation?
14:46I don't know, Hinay.
14:48We, Israel has had a very clear policy throughout its history that we are fighting for ourselves.
14:54We didn't come back to our homeland to ask others to fight for us.
14:58Hmm.
14:59And we know from experience that nobody is going to fight our enemies for us.
15:05We saw very well that, for example, when we withdrew from Lebanon in 2000 and then again after the war in 2006,
15:13we had a great UN force there.
15:16They didn't fight anybody.
15:18Why should any foreigner fight for Israel?
15:23We need to fight for ourselves.
15:25We need to defeat Hamas ourselves.
15:27If we manage to do that, then there is a chance that international involvement can become constructive.
15:33Then there is a chance that observers can come and actually help Palestinians to build their future independence.
15:41But this is not going to happen thanks to American boots or any other boots.
15:46Right.
15:47I also want to talk about a report which talked about Great Trust Plan.
15:53And it says that how there is a plan to actually let Palestinians who are there in Gaza to take,
16:00you know, hostage in neighboring Arab nations to go there to live there until the Gaza Strip redeveloped itself.
16:09Now, my question to you is that do you think that Arab nations first is going to accept it?
16:18Secondly, I want to know if this is going to be as per the wills of the Gazans or is it going to be something which we will see forcefully happening?
16:27There is a lot of hypocrisy here because in any conflict that we have seen in the last few decades,
16:34refugees could flee to neighboring countries until peace is restored.
16:39We saw it in Ukraine. We saw it in Syria. And we are seeing it in other places.
16:45The Palestinians are the only ones that are not allowed to flee. And why is that?
16:51I think it's mainly for two reasons because the Arab countries are not sincere in trying to help their neighbors.
16:58And to a certain extent, they also are concerned because in the past different groups of Palestinians have, you know, creating chaos in countries like Jordan,
17:10like Lebanon, like Syria, like Kuwait, etc. So we have to deal with that ourselves.
17:17We are not going to forcefully exile people. We know that a very large amount of the population in Gaza
17:26would like to flee to a safe haven until the situation improves.
17:31And the question is whether we have vehicles to do that. This is something that we are contemplating.
17:36But at the end of the day, we know that the best way to serve the interests of our people and our neighbors
17:44is to get Hamas out of the Gaza Strip.
17:47Is it possible that some of the Gazans can be absorbed in Israel so that you can better deal with the situation in Gaza Strip?
17:54Well, we have been, you know, dealing with a lot of humanitarian cases throughout the years.
17:59We've been treating thousands of Gazans in the hospitals. We've been employing Gazans in the past.
18:04Unfortunately, this was manipulated by Hamas.
18:07And we found ourselves, including on the 7th of October, with people that came to work in Israel
18:13and they used that in order to draw the charts of attack and the plans of attack against Israel.
18:19So we are today much more cautious when it comes to hosting Palestinians as a result of that.
18:24Right. I also want to talk about the anti-Semitic violence that goes on, not only in Israel, in other countries also.
18:31Recently, we also saw two Israelis getting killed in the US.
18:35What is Israel doing to ensure the safety of these people?
18:38We do know that there is a lot of immigration also happening of Jews from across the globe through Alia flights.
18:44But what is it that Israel is doing in order to ensure that Jews are not persecuted in any country?
18:50There is no doubt that there has been a deterioration in the safety of the Jews as a result, mainly of radical Islamic elements
18:59that are very active in many places around the world, especially in Europe, in Western Europe and in the United States.
19:06We are working with governments. We are cooperating both operationally and also through intelligence means.
19:13We are supporting communities. We are in touch with the leaders of the communities to try to see what we can do.
19:21At the end of the day, it is the responsibility of each and every country to take care of their citizens.
19:27And those who are failing to do so, I think, should amend that situation.
19:33Sometimes we've seen that some leaders are actually legitimizing these attacks by distorting the entire narrative.
19:42We've seen that in Spain, for example, with leadership in Spain that is very radical.
19:50That's completely unacceptable. And, of course, it's our responsibility to make sure that any government, you know,
19:59plays its role in defending its own population, including Jews.
20:03Talking about Jerusalem, this is one place which is definitely close to people from all religions,
20:09whether it's Judaism, whether it's Christianity or whether it's Islam.
20:13The US recognized Jerusalem as the Israel's capital in 2017.
20:17And, of course, it drew a lot of condemnation also from across the globe.
20:22Do you think the situation could have been avoided in order to not hurt the sensitivities of people from these religious backgrounds?
20:29Well, Jerusalem has never been the capital of any state except the state of Israel and the Kingdom of Israel.
20:39In any time in history, Jerusalem wasn't the capital of any Arab state or any Muslim state.
20:45And the sensitivity in Jerusalem doesn't derive from the fact that Israel doesn't respect the other religions.
20:52On the contrary, since Jerusalem was taken back by Israel, all religions are free to exercise in Jerusalem.
21:00The problem is with those radicals that do not accept Jewish history in Jerusalem, that are trying to erase Jewish history from Jerusalem.
21:12So, the solution is not to surrender to the radicals in order not to ignite their fury.
21:22The solution is to do the right thing, to confront the radicals and to support countries like Israel that support religious tolerance,
21:33that are ready to share the most sacred shrines with other religions.
21:39You know, under the slogan that Israel is trying to destroy Alexa Mosque,
21:45many riots and many massacres have happened in the last hundred years.
21:49All of them were a lie. Israel never, never threatened the Muslim shrines in Jerusalem.
21:56On the contrary, we acted actively to preserve them and protect them.
22:01And therefore, more countries should join the United States in recognizing Israel.
22:06There is a trend of more countries doing that.
22:09And as much as more countries do that, it will contribute to peace and not to instability.
22:14Now, of course, Israel's demand has always remained that it does not want Iran to have a nuke, right?
22:21But at the same time, Israel does not want to join NPT.
22:25Why is this ambiguity there?
22:28Don't you think if it joins NPT, it will somehow help these nations to get a better, you know, understanding what Israel actually stands for?
22:40Absolutely not. And I'll tell you why. Because, first of all, the NPT is not a credible organization.
22:47There have been a multitude of countries that have joined the NPT and they have cheated.
22:53You had Syria that was part of the NPT, but, you know, was building a nuclear weapon.
23:00You had Iraq doing the same. You had Libya doing the same.
23:04And, of course, the biggest cheater of all are the Iranians.
23:08But it's not only that, you know, the Iranians have sworn to destroy the State of Israel.
23:14Time and again, they had a clock in the middle of Tehran, counting the time until Israel is destroyed.
23:21They had a plan, an operational plan, to annihilate the State of Israel in 2027.
23:28With a combination of several means. An army of proxies that have built around us.
23:35A huge arsenal of ballistic missiles. Tenth of thousands of ballistic missiles they were going to produce.
23:41And a nuclear arsenal. And they have been cheating the IAEA for years and years.
23:48Now, even after they signed the so-called JCPOA, they were continuing to cheat.
23:56And actually, the IAEA, only a few months back, has declared that Iran has breached the safeguards agreement,
24:03which is the most basic commitment that countries take upon themselves when they join the NPT.
24:11So, it would be completely unfair to ask from a country like Israel to join an organization
24:22that has been constantly been cheated by countries that have sworn to destroy us.
24:28Right. Shifting focus, I want to talk about how is the bonding between the communities in Israel,
24:36the Palestinian Arabs and Jews people. And I'm asking this question because sometimes in a bigger picture,
24:43we tend to reduce the issues to something which gives us a very narrow perspective of something.
24:49And I was speaking to one Israeli and he was speaking about how these communities live very peacefully inside of Israel.
24:59So, I want you to talk a little bit about, because generally when we look at this issue, we just make it a perspective of Palestinian Arabs versus Jews.
25:09But how is these communities, you know, bonding in Israel?
25:14Well, I don't know if you know, but in Israel itself, without the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,
25:21we have 15% Muslims and overall 20% Arabs, including Druze, Christians, Circassians and others.
25:32Okay? All the citizens of Israel are equal under the law. Israel is the one and only Jewish state.
25:39And Arabs in Israel might not have national rights as Arabs, because they don't have an Arab state, they live in a Jewish state.
25:48But they enjoy equal rights. And actually, the effort of the government of Israel to integrate and include all the minority populations in Israel is a very, very active policy.
26:04For example, we have been putting a lot of stress in the last few years in including Arab Muslim women in the workforce,
26:13because generally in the Arab world, in the Muslim world, in the Western world, in India, in many other places,
26:20you have a situation of unprivileged women that are not part of the workforce, do not enjoy all the freedoms and the opportunities that the economy and the world has to offer.
26:35And we've been able, through efforts that had to do with academicization, centers of employment in your villages, etc.,
26:44to increase the number of Muslim women that are part of the workforce from 15% to 55%.
26:52And that's a world record. So, anybody that comes to Israel, and I invite you to visit, will see that.
27:01You know, we have our Arab citizens immersed in many walks of life, in hospitals, it's very easy to see.
27:12A majority of the doctors and the pharmacists are Arab. We have Arabs in our courts, of course, in the parliament.
27:21So, Israel is, from that point of view, is a country that enjoys a very high degree of coexistence.
27:30How is the interaction between IDF officers and civilians in Gaza during this conflict?
27:36I want to get an understanding because there was a report which said that one Israeli officer did not want to continue fighting in Gaza
27:45because he thought, he saw it as quote-unquote war crime. Is there any sort of discord such as this?
27:53Because recently, as per the report, we saw that Mossad also refused to get the troops inside of Qatar to attack Hamas leaders.
28:04So, is there any sort of infighting and trying to understand in IDF and in Mossad?
28:09Well, first of all, Israel is a democracy, and we have a very fierce battle of opinions.
28:14And, of course, when you talk about things of life and death, and war and peace, the controversy is even higher because the stakes are higher.
28:26And the degree that every Israeli citizen has to contribute to the state is so high that people are involved and they care.
28:35Now, regarding the Gaza Strip, there are people that are pacifists, not necessarily because Israel is conducting any illegal activity,
28:44but war is something that is very difficult and it entails a lot of sacrifice and willingness to deal with tough decisions and tough moves.
28:59Not everybody, you know, is prepared, willing or capable of doing that.
29:10And, of course, you have to deal with that, with sensitivity, and that's what we are doing.
29:16Now, when it comes to this move we did against Hamas leadership in Qatar, there were differences of opinions regarding that.
29:27There was a tactical decision that the activity would be done in a certain way.
29:35It doesn't differ from the fact that there are people or organizations that are not willing.
29:41So, Ambassador Azhar, on 7th of October 2023, when Hamas attacked Israeli citizens,
29:47there were a lot of reports which said that Indian workers are now filling in the shoes of Palestinians who were working in the agriculture sector.
29:56And there was a lot of criticism also regarding that, saying that why Indians are going to Israel to do this menial job.
30:04What is your response to that?
30:05Well, first of all, we are a sovereign country and we are entitled to decide who we are going to allow into our country.
30:11And, of course, it's a completely free choice by anybody that we invite if they want to come.
30:17It's actually pretty profitable to come to Israel.
30:20The average salary is $1,500 and a lot of people from around the world that want to come, including Indians.
30:27So, last year, yes, we have doubled the number of Indian workers.
30:32We have a very, very, you know, thriving economy.
30:35Fortunately, despite the war, our economy continues to increase.
30:39We, like India, are lagging behind when it comes to building infrastructure.
30:44And we count on the talent and the capability of Indian workers to fill that gap.
30:49So, whether they have the will to come, they will come, and it's not in the place of anybody else.
30:56It's out of their free will and our free decision to decide who we are going to allow into our country.
31:02My sense, after being one year here, is that we have a lot in common in terms of our heritage
31:08because we are very ancient civilizations, modern countries.
31:13For many years, we have been chased and persecuted and destroyed by foreign civilizations.
31:19And we finally got to the moment which we can build our own sovereignty back.
31:25We are suffering from similar threats, the threats of radicalism and terrorism.
31:30And we are fighting it independently, but while cooperating in the creation of capabilities.
31:40And that is a kind of trust that we have been developing for the last three decades,
31:45that is bringing us together big time.
31:47And, you know, India is also a very tolerant society, a society that has accepted Jewish communities here.
31:55And that is why Israelis love India.
31:57We are adopting a lot of cultural and human sides of what India has to offer in spirituality, in yoga, in vegetarianism,
32:10in what India has to offer in terms of, you know, nature and sightseeing and healing.
32:17And that is something that Israelis admire.
32:20And that's why I think Israelis are being loved in India and why Indians are being loved in Israel.
32:27When this attack happened, of course, there continues to be a lot of people who travel to India from Israel
32:34and who go to Israel from India for a visit, for holidays, to just check around how the country is.
32:42How safe is Israel right now when this war is going on in Gaza?
32:46It's very safe.
32:48It's very safe.
32:49Once we have been able to decimate the power of Hezbollah in the north and the Assad regime fell
32:56and we, you know, we were victorious in this 12th war against Iran.
33:01Since then, Israel is much more stable.
33:04The travel in and out of Israel is very easy.
33:07We are now at the rate of about 100,000 people that are entering and exiting Israel per day.
33:15Our factories, our economy is functioning.
33:20From time to time, we have a missile coming from Yemen because of the Houthi terrorist activity.
33:29But it's not something that is really disturbing the day-to-day life in Israel.
33:34So it's generally speaking very safe.
33:35Russia's RT television is in India and it's expanding, it's making content which is more relatable for the Indian audience.
33:46Can we see something from Israel also of that sort? Some sort of a digital platform or maybe TV?
33:52Look, we are a small country and unfortunately we are not investing enough in this kind of soft power efforts.
33:59This is one of the lessons of the recent war.
34:02I think that there are more and more people now in Israel understand that it's not enough to invest in hard power in order to survive against those who attack us.
34:09But we also need to apply more tools of communication with audiences around the world.
34:15I hope that that happens.
34:17But anyway, you know, we have many other platforms in which we can interact.
34:21A lot of movement of people that come not only to do business but also to do tourism, cultural cooperation, academic cooperation.
34:33It's happening all the time.
34:34And we are also counting on the rise of the big international Indian satellite channels that will probably be more friendly than others are.
34:47There were a lot of comments from Congress party saying that Israel is, quote unquote, committing a genocide in Gaza.
34:55We've also seen Kerala Chief Minister Pinaray Vijayam rebuking the visit of Israeli finance minister to India.
35:03What are your thoughts to these kind of comments?
35:08Well, I think that we have to differentiate between two situations.
35:11Situations in which people are critical and that's natural.
35:14We should engage with people that are critical to have a conversation, to understand how they feel, to see whether they get the right information,
35:22whether there is something that we can do in order to change our conduct.
35:26That's completely legitimate.
35:28What I see as absolutely illegitimate is the attempt to put blood labels on Israel, on the Jews.
35:36You know, we've been a people that have been persecuted with blood labels for the last 2,000 years, since the times of the Roman Empire, in which they saw monotheism as a threat,
35:50and invented these blood labels, like, you know, the Jews killed Christ and all kinds of, and Jews that were, you know, brewing the, that were preparing the matzah for the Jewish feasts with blood of Christian children.
36:04All kinds of blood labels that, things that are invented.
36:08Okay?
36:09Israel doesn't have a genocidal intention against the Palestinian people.
36:13We are having a very difficult war in which we are trying to minimize the civilian casualties.
36:18Israel doesn't have a policy of starvation.
36:21Israel actually is the only country in the history of conflict that has been facilitating millions of tons of food to the enemy territory, more than anybody has done in the past.
36:32So when people try to put blood labels on us, then it's very hard for us to remain silent.
36:40And I think that it's completely illegitimate.
36:42These were some of the very prominent members of the party.
36:46Just in case, just assuming the hypothetical situation, just in case if Congress comes to power, because you were also foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister.
36:56I'm in touch with a lot of leaders in Congress that do not think like the persons that you have mentioned.
37:01And I think that in the Congress party, there are a lot of sensible people that might have different opinions that engage in dialogue with us.
37:09And we are very happy to engage in that dialogue.
37:12So I think that we shouldn't paint all of the parties in one color.
37:18I think that there are certain people that are engaging in this kind of rhetoric that I think is very detrimental to the Indian interest, to reality, and to a sincere attempt to create a positive dialogue that is also conducive and that promotes peace and doesn't promote hate.
37:40We have a Consulate General in Bengaluru. What is it that the Consulate General is doing in order to promote the ties between Israel and the South Indian nations?
37:52Our decision to put a Consulate General in the first place derived from the fact that we see great potential in Bengaluru.
37:59And our Consul General, Orly Weizmann, is doing a lot of work in the economic field.
38:05There are many Israeli companies that are engaged in cooperation in joint venture services there in high tech.
38:12And we are increasingly looking at sourcing. We are engaged also in agricultural cooperation.
38:19And of course, in a lot of other public activities, including cultural, that Orly is leading there with a lot of energy.
38:28Have you ever had the chance to travel?
38:31Well, not yet to Bengaluru. I've been, personally, I've been to Hyderabad, I've been to Goa, to Kochi.
38:38And I'm looking forward to visit many other important and interesting places like Bangaluru, like Podichori and, you know, many other places in the South.
38:50Right. Israeli Finance Minister also came recently. What kind of bilateral agreements were signed between both the nations?
38:57The major thing is that we signed a bilateral investment treaty.
39:01That is a treaty that includes assurances for private sector companies that want to invest in the partner country,
39:10that they will not be discriminated against, that will be protected by the courts, that they will be able to repatriate their investments, etc.
39:18It's a very important sign for the private sector, and I'm sure it's going to contribute for the increase in investments,
39:25in mutual investments in the countries. But in addition to that, the Finance Minister came with a very big team of regular
39:31regulators in Israel that are very powerful. One of them, for example, is the Accountant General. He manages all the public tenders in Israel.
39:38And we are going to issue, in the next 10 years, 200 billion dollars worth of infrastructure tenders.
39:48And we are interested in attracting Indian companies to participate, because we need the competition,
39:52and we know that Indian infrastructure companies have been doing great work here in India.
39:57So we engaged in exposing those tenders, we engaged in getting to know the companies.
40:02In addition to that, he came with the representative of our central bank.
40:07We are looking for better ways to streamline financial transactions between the countries.
40:12One option would be adopting UPI. This is something that we want to contemplate.
40:17The Finance Minister also came with the head of our stock exchange.
40:22And because there is a huge interest from institutional players in Israel to invest much more in the Indian stock exchange.
40:31Because we see, you know, they see very well how India is booming economically, and they want to be part of that success.
40:38So, this visit has been immensely important for, you know, advancing the bilateral relation, the economic bilateral relation,
40:47and I am sure we are going to have results that are going to manifest themselves in the future.
40:52We are still working on trying to convince India to engage with us in a trade deal.
40:59We believe that that would be mutually beneficial, not because we want access to the Indian market,
41:07because Israel doesn't produce a lot of finished products.
41:10What we want to do is to make it easier for the Israeli companies to source in India,
41:16to have industrial cooperation, and the free trade agreement would pave the way for that.
41:22With Trump imposing tariffs on India, how is Israel looking to balance the ties with the US?
41:29I know it's a very important strategic partner for Israel, but how is this balancing act going on?
41:35Well, we don't have to balance between India and America.
41:39You know, these two countries are very good friends of Israel. We are cooperating with them both.
41:44We had to sort out some differences with the Americans on trade. We've done that.
41:49So, I don't think that for us it's a challenge. I think that we would like to see a situation
41:56in which America and India sort out their problems, because I think we have all a common interest
42:03to become more competitive in this global competition we are all part of.
42:09And Israel is the biggest innovation hub outside the United States.
42:14We are very lean to the United States, but we are a pretty substantial hub.
42:20And we can benefit if all these three players work together better than if they don't.
42:28So, I hope that these differences will be resolved.
42:31And how do you see the camaraderie between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu?
42:38Well, I think it's a great relationship. You know, what they've done since 2017 and 18,
42:43when they exchanged visits, has been remarkable.
42:46I think that since then our relations have advanced a lot.
42:50One of the direct results, for example, is the fact that we have here in this embassy a water attache.
42:56Because we have identified that water is, you know, a huge potential for cooperation.
43:00India now is investing billions of dollars in, you know, maintaining and cleaning your water resources.
43:07This is something that Israel can contribute for a lot.
43:10Actually, as we speak, we have a water delegation in Israel with leading companies from India
43:15that are interested in the sector. And we are sure that thanks to the leadership of both leaders,
43:23our relations are actually on the right track.
43:26Well, on that note, Ambassador Azhar, thank you so much for taking out the time
43:30and speaking with Asian Edge News on so many different topics.
43:35And I really appreciate your perspective. Thank you once again.
43:38Thank you, Veena. Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure.
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