Sebastian Kurz Quotes
We will try to raise awareness in Europe for the special situation and the special security needs of Israel.
Kurz, Sebastian. Interview by Lally Weymouth. "Austria's 32-year-old chancellor is a conservative rock star. Here's what he thinks about Trump, Putin and the EU." The Washington Post, 20 Feb. 2019.
The Palestinians were split between supporters of Hamas and Fatah. The former was a terrorist organization which refused to recognize the right of Israel to exist and whose charter called for the killing of all Jews. The latter, accepted the right of Israel to exist and was committed to peace and coexistence with the Jewish state. They had fought a civil war and Hamas controlled Gaza with well over 1 million people which they seized for force and killed of forced out Fatah Representatives. Fatah was the elected ruling party of the West Bank, the larger and more populous of the Palestinian territories. There was little chance of any peace given that split. However, Israel which had undergone over 7000 rockets fired upon them by Hamas, stated that they refused to negotiate with the Palestinians as long as the Hamas terrorists were a part of the control of the potential Palestinian state. They would only discuss a 2 state solution if Hamas agreed that they accepted the right of Israel to exist in their general territory as a Jewish State, Hamas would accept and follow previous agreements made with the Palestinians, and Hamas would give up terrorism and the objective of killing Jews. So either Hamas would have to change its policies or Israel would negotiate with an organization that claimed it would never accept the existence of that country as a Jewish state. Al-Masri thought that the agreement he had mediated, was a necessary first step and was constructive for all the parties.
Sebastian Kurz is an Austrian politician who has served as Chancellor of Austria since January 2020, a position he previously held from December 2017 to May 2019. Kurz has also been chairman of the Austrian People's Party since May 2017.
