The Swiss are upset because Israel didn’t invite any members of the government of Switzerland to Israel’s 60th birthday celebration. Hm. I wonder why.
The relationship between Israel and Switzerland has been strained since a recent visit by Calmy-Rey to Iran to witness the signing of a multibillion-dollar natural gas supply contract between Swiss company EGL and Iran’s state-owned National Iranian Gas Export Company.
I’m still not getting it.
Calmy-Rey has supported the so-called “Geneva Accord” – an alternative Middle East initiative worked out after two years of Swiss-funded secret negotiations between Israeli opposition figures and Palestinians. The deal would have mapped out borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state, but it was never officially endorsed by either side.
“As a neutral state we talk to everyone,” Calmy-Rey was quoted by Sonntag as saying.
Nope, still not getting it.
In March, Switzerland was the only European member of the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council to vote in favor of a resolution condemning Israeli military action in Gaza that resulted in the death of more than 120 Palestinians, many of them civilians. The military raids were prompted by Palestinian militant groups escalating their rocket fire into Israel.
Switzerland said at the time it wanted to send a strong signal to Israel about the “particular gravity of the events in the southern part of Israel and Gaza.”
No, I really don’t understand why Israel doesn’t want the Swiss around.
She said Switzerland would continue to condemn breaches of international humanitarian law. “Particularly Israel, with its painful history, should understand and appreciate that,” she said, according to Sonntag.
Yeah, maybe it also had something to do with the famed “neutral” nation stealing billions of dollars from Holocaust victims. But it’s far more important that the Swiss lecture Israel on human rights than give up the secrecy that allows Switzerland to fund more criminals and criminal activity than any other nation on earth.