H.E. Mr. Boaz Modai:

The result of the war was that we found ourselves with a considerable area that we never planned to have. Immediately after the war, our Minister responsible for defence, Moshe Dayan - everybody remembers the name - suggested that we give back the land for peace purposes. Members may remember the three "No's" of the Khartoum conference in Sudan, referring to "No peace, no negotiation and no recognition of Israel". That is the reaction we received and we have since been trying to solve the problem. The only card we have in our hands is these territories.

As I have said previously - and I am ready to say it again to the Palestinian ambassador - the future Palestinian state will be based on that, as long as Israeli security is guaranteed. Yes, I know we are obsessed when it comes to security, but we have all the reasons in the world to be. The destiny of our people was in the hands of others only 78 years ago and we remember the results. We will not let it happen again. We must make sure that our own army, the IDF, and our own government protect our citizens, and that is what we will always do from now on.

If the dialogue is based on 1967 in principle, it will be around these lines, but where exactly they will be will not be solved now. We have had a bad experience with the Palestinians because, in the past, whenever we met the ambassador mentioned here and described the lines, that became the new starting point for another negotiation, like in what we call a Turkish bazaar, in which one must negotiate all the time. We will not do that. Prime Minister Netanyahu has said time and again that he will not repeat the same mistake. Everything will be discussed together, including, and mainly, Israeli security, which is very important to us.

In response to Deputy Boyd Barrett, I have not heard so many cliches in such a short time for a long time. He belongs to the group that thinks I must be expelled from this country. I am sorry to delude him too. The fact that he mentioned a few times already this afternoon that he is not an anti-Semite raises questions. I am not saying that he is.