Ron Dermer Quotes
We are not going to negotiate with anyone who is committed to our destruction.
For years of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Palestinians would never negotiate with Israel over anything. Finally that barrier was broken and, the PLO became a negotiating party with Israel. However, the terrorist organization Hamas, had challenged the PLO for political control of the Palestinians and then took over the Gaza strip—part of the Palestinian territory. They then shot thousands of rockets into Israel, a clear act of war under international law. The Israelis then attacked the Hamas infrastructure and any building of facility where they had command or communications, meetings, trainings or stored weapons or ammunitions. The Gazans suffered many more casualties than the Israelis—about 20 to 1 ratio. Many other countries tried to broker a ceasefire which the Israelis agreed to but Hamas would not. The Israeli ambassador was asked on American television if Israel would be willing to negotiate on the larger issues of the conflict as they had negotiated with the PLO. This was his reply. The major problem was that the Hamas Charter had two clauses that made negotiations impossible. Hamas was committed to the destruction of Israel and would not agree that the Israel had a right to exist. Second, the Hamas charter called for the killing of Jews anywhere in the world—men, women and children. The Israelis asked what they would negotiate about given those two charter items and the Hamas terror history in killing as many Israelis as they could.
Ron Dermer, Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Interview, PBS The Charlie Rose Show, July 1, 2014
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Erecat was expressing his frustration with the peace negotiations and the lack of progress.
Ron Dermer is an American-born Israeli political consultant and diplomat who served as the Israeli Ambassador to the United States. He previously served as Israel's economic envoy to the United States from 2005 to 2008, a position requiring him to give up his American citizenship, and subsequently served as senior adviser to current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for four years. On July 9, 2013 Dermer was confirmed by the government of Israel as Israel's ambassador to the United States, replacing Michael Oren. He began serving as Israel's Ambassador to the United States in October 2013. In July 2019, it was announced that the Israeli Civil Service Commission would not extend his term and that Dermer will resign as Ambassador to the United States in September 2019. In January 2021 Dermer stopped serving as the ambassador and Gilad Erdan replaced him.
