H.E. Mr. Avraham Sharon, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the State of Israel

Few are the diplomats who during their professional career were posted twice as ambassadors to the same country. H.E. Mr. Avraham Sharon is one of them. In the early and mid 1990s he witnessed the painful and slow political and economic changes in his first homeland. The difference between Bulgaria then and Bulgaria in the years of his current mandate is great. Besides this change, we wanted to ask him about the intransient values - in the human and interstate relations, for example. And about the less known facts which marked the centuries-long intercourse between the Jewish communities and the Bulgarians on the Balkan Peninsula. These facts have their continuation and development in the new and newest history of Israel and Bulgaria. Perhaps they partly explain the special relations existing between the two countries.

While we were arranging the day and hour of the interview with Ambassador Sharon, the world news agencies and the Bulgarian electronic media were running over and over again sequences from the final pullout of the Israeli units from the Gaza Strip. Doubtlessly, this is the big news in the Israeli-Palestinian relations in 2005. So, the comments on this historical act naturally became the beginning of our conversation.

Your Excellency, what is the importance of this step in a political aspect and what is the human price of the pullout?
This is simultaneously a personal decision of the Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon and a unilateral step, which we think and hope will improve the atmosphere and the trust between Israel and the Palestinians. We expect the next steps to be bilateral, bound by treaties, so that finally peace and a solution ending the conflict be achieved. Our Prime Minister declared at the UN General Assembly that this is what his policy in the following years will be. The aim is to reach a solution where, on the one hand, Israel will live in secure borders, and on the other, there will be two states. Israel and a Palestinian state. However, I would add that to us the pullout from Gaza is also a test, a trial. Now is the time for the Palestinian government to show not only whether it wants to - because in the time of Yasser Arafat it didn't - but whether it is able to control and govern the territory. This is crucial and we expect to see if terror will subside. We live with the hope it will stop. If this happens, we will be able to go on to the next stages, whereby peace will be attained. The peace we in Israel want and which we are sure is desired by the Palestinian people too.

There is also another specific reason that it is not in our interest to remain in Gaza. With the development of the demographic processes, one day we would be in a situation where the State of Israel would have a Palestinian majority there. The pullout was delayed because we were not sure if Egypt as a neighbor country would take responsibility for the control of the border with Gaza. Through this border arms were trafficked, terrorists sneaked in. In the first days after the pullout it was as if the border did not exist. Then it was closed and we hope it will be controlled well.

How was this step motivated before the citizens and the public in Israel?
We watched live, day and night, the process of pulling out the Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. It wasn't easy for anyone, even for those you supported it. Now we are faced with a humanitarian task - those who were born or lived there for 30 years have to leave their houses, gardens, animals and move temporarily, we don't know for how long, to hotels, without a job, without schools for the students. So, for the soldiers and for the police it was not easy to perform this obligation.

Among the population there are groups of people who do not accept this step. Many think terror will rise instead of abate. Others are convinced, for ideological reasons, that this is a part of Israel. It was a very hard decision for Premier Sharon, which increased the opposition in his own party. As a result, there will be pre-term elections in Likud. Two of the party leaders, Natanyahu and Landau have put forward their candidatures to head the party and it is not clear whether Sharon will win. His eventual loss would entail a crisis not only in the party but maybe in the entire Israeli political scene.

About the global challenges

Our meeting with Ambassador Sharon took place in Sofia in the days of the Summit in New York, which had gathered 170 odd political leaders from across the world. The big challenges of our time and the UN reform were discussed there. So, at least two of the topics on the leaders' agenda were included in our interview: global terror and its combat, and the role of Israel in the world organization.

How is the Near East changing in this perspective?
In the first place, I would like to say that we in Israel think there is no difference between global and local terrorism. The struggle should be waged against any kind of terrorism. The states should cooperate not only against global terror - that of Al Qaeda - but also against groups like Hamas, Jihad and Hisbulla. Any terrorism is dangerous - for the country where it operates, for its neighbors and for the whole world.

At the 60th jubilee session of the UN General Assembly Israel was deputy chair for the first time. Does this mean the complex and uneven relations between Israel and the world organization are entering a new phase?
Of course, this is a positive step. Something even more unexpected happened - Premier Sharon's speech in the hall of the General Assembly was followed by applause. Until a few months ago, hardly anyone could deem this possible. But many more steps are to come before Israel feels a full-fledged member and before the UN starts accepting Israel as a natural member of the world organization. Perhaps the day we become a member of the Security Council we'll know we have attained this state of normality. Maybe then there will be no ritual passing of 20 anti-Israeli resolutions a year, some of which are already anachronisms.

Israel advanced a proposal, and Bulgaria is among the countries which supported it, to have a special item on the Holocaust on the agenda of the UN General Assembly session every year. In a sense, this is to remind everybody of a lesson every year. What should we remember here in Bulgaria, especially to the young people?
It seems redundant to repeat how grateful Israel is to Bulgaria, to the Bulgarian people for the historical gesture of saving the Bulgarian Jews. This was something unique in Europe. Yet, I think the young people here know about the saving but do not know about the Holocaust, which took place elsewhere. They should learn more and bear in mind how dangerous are such fascist movements, which start out as very little movements with restricted influence but may grow and seize the power.

There is yet another reason why in Bulgaria more should be known about the Holocaust. It is the fact that the Jews from Thrace and Macedonia were sent to the death camps. Unfortunately, in 1943 Bulgaria could not save them and this should not be forgotten. It is inscribed on the plaque outside the Bulgarian parliament, which was put up during the visit of the Kneset chairman: In honor of the saving of the Bulgarian Jews and in memory of the perished from Thrace and Macedonia.