Statement by PM Netanyahu after his Meeting with Cyprus President Nicos
Anastasiades
(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

Following is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement, today (Tuesday,
28 July 2015), in Cyprus, after his meeting with Cyprus President Nicos
Anastasiades:

"Mr. President, thank you, my good friend, Nicos. It's a pleasure for me to
reciprocate your visit to Israel with a visit by myself and our delegation
to your beautiful island, your beautiful people and your very friendly
government. We feel among friends, and there's a reason for that. I want you
to know that the reasons that this is my first visit, having being
re-elected, outside Israel and your first visit is not merely that we're
saving airline fuel. It's because there is a real closeness which goes well
beyond, as you said, geographic proximity.

These are two democracies, Israel and Cyprus, on the eastern edge of the
Mediterranean. We're very proud of our heritage and of our history. Cyprus
has a rich history. In the last visit I had the opportunity to visit your
just magnificent treasures in your museum and I could see your past, the
intertwining of the Jewish past in Cyprus, and of course Israel has an
equally rich tradition that goes back to the days of the Bible, before the
Bible and after the Bible. So we're very proud of our past and yet we are
two modern countries that embrace the future with all its challenges but
with all its exciting possibilities, and we believe that by cooperating we
can actually make that future better for both our peoples and both our
countries.

There is palpably a renewed energy in our relationship and I mean that
figuratively and literally. There is energy. We have been blessed, blessed
by God that there is mana not in the heavens but under the water, and we
want to take it out. We think that by cooperating with each other we can
take it out more easily, we can market it better to the betterment of both
our societies. This is something that we are discussing very intensively and
there are many possibilities and we're going to explore each one of them and
make a decision, but it's based on cooperation.

Energy is the first field. The second field I would say broadly is the
economy, and let me say that the President and I are giving examples to
Israeli tourists and to Cypriot tourists. We want to increase tourism and we
want to increase investments and economic activities both ways. I think that
is again something that is beneficial to both our peoples.

The third area is security. We are faced with a very unstable world which
while it forges new opportunities also presents new dangers. The dangers
come primarily from militant Islam, either led by the radical Shiites headed
by Iran or led by the radical Sunnis, at the moment headed by ISIS. These
are two formidable dangers. They are expressed in many weapons and many
attacks, but the most prevalent one that concerns Cyprus and Europe is of
course the terrorism that emanates from these areas. Iran and Hezbollah
organize a terrorist network that covers over thirty countries on five
continents, including Europe, just about every country in Europe.

ISIS obviously endangers European societies, Western societies, African
societies, the whole world, in its own way. And we are committed to help our
friends, the same embattled societies counter the threat of terrorism, but
also bolster our defenses in other ways and we are constantly in touch on
this and prepared to do more with each other. I welcome that.

We want to achieve peace. Peace is dependent on security, and ultimately if
you don’t have a capacity to defend the peace, it collapses very rapidly in
our area. But peace also depends on the willingness of parties to talk to
one another and to try to put ancient issues behind them or at least resolve
them in a way that they don’t prevent us from seizing the future.

I want to extend my best wishes to you on your efforts. You have a difficult
problem, we have a difficult problem, and we both hope for the best and for
the success of your efforts to achieve peace with your neighbors and our
efforts of course to achieve peace with our Palestinian neighbors. I would
welcome the opportunity to present Israel's position to the EU. I think this
is a very worthwhile initiative that you, Nicos, have brought up. And you've
often said to me after our conversations: Why don’t you have the opportunity
to present these simple facts and these simple arguments to Europe? And I
said: That's not a bad idea. I thought it was actually a very good idea. So
we're pursuing this as well, continue to discuss this with the visit of Mr.
Tusk in Israel in a few weeks, and we seek also a world I would say that
enables people to live, to live in dignity, to live first of all and not
die, to live in dignity and peace and prosperity and in freedom. This is
something that offers an easy familiarity and a genuine friendship. We are
part of the same civilization and we will protect our civilization.

Thank you, thank you very much, Nicos."