Yesterday, Ambassador Mark Regev had the opportunity to meet students from City University of London and engage in civil discourse to put to rest any misconceptions and misinformation the students may have.
The moderator of the event Dr Leonie Fleischmann opened the floor with the first question directed at Ambassador Mark Regev.
"My question is, what is Israel doing in the West Bank? How can it justify this continued prolonged occupation that receives international condemnation? And the Palestinians, their predicament is dire. And my question is what is Israel's justification for the policies there?" - Dr Leonie Fleischmann.
"So you have to ask yourself so what is the alternative? Because you can say the current situation is not optimal, you could even point to all the problems in the current situations, but then you'll have to say well how can we make it better? Take out all the settlements and pull back to the 67 lines and then everything will be fine, yes? Unfortunately, that's a myth and we know it's a myth because we actually did it in Gaza. What did Sharon do in Gaza? You can either agree with him or disagree with him, he took out all the settlements and pulled back to the 67 lines. And if that's an example of what will happen on the West Bank if we do the same there, no Israeli wants to do that," Ambassador Mark Regev responded.
He continues, "You have to ask the following question, do you have an alternative at least a real alternative that can make life a bit better for Israelis and Palestinians. I think what's happening in Gaza is not good for Israelis it's also not good for Palestinians living in Gaza let's be frank. So one has to deal with the issue. Once again to say Israel in the occupation pull out, you'll have to explain how will that be good for you? Why will that make it better for you? You could even argue it will not make it better for the Palestinians, people say a solution is a Palestinian state, but if a Palestinian state looks like Gaddafi's Lybia or like Syria today or like Iraq today or like Lebanon if a Palestinian state looks like that it's not good for the Palestinians and it's not good for us."