Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thank Mr. Lulashnyk and Ms. Garner for being with us today.
I want to emphasize that, if not a lasting peace in the region, the conclusion of the peace agreement with a number of Arab countries is certainly most positive. However, to state things plainly, the agreement is essentially an acknowledgement of the normalization of the relations that have been established over the years.
The latest clashes have made it clear that as long as there is no peace agreement between Israel and Palestine, these countries will live in a permanent state of war. To use an oft-cited formulation, peace in Israel and Palestine, under the circumstances, is merely an absence of war pending new confrontations.
We feel each new confrontation with great pain. So I can hardly imagine how painful it must be for the Israelis and Palestinians who experience the clashes on the ground.
I therefore call for a lasting peace agreement between the two peoples as soon as possible to end the ongoing state of war in these countries.
In this regard, is it reasonable to believe that the political instability on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides is detrimental to the resumption of negotiations between the parties?