Politics

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today (Thursday, 2 May 2013), met with Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter. At the start of the meeting, the Prime Minister said, "We have a saying in Israel: Israel isn’t Switzerland. And what they mean by that is that your neighborhood is more tranquil and less challenging. That is true. Still, I don’t know of any Israeli that would like to exchange our country for somewhere else, but there are a few things that I think we can learn from you and one of them is the referendum. Not for every issue; not on every point of debate; but on one thing: that is, if we get to a peace agreement with the Palestinians, I’d like to bring it to a referendum. And I’d like to talk to you about your experiences with that, and many other things."

Swiss Foreign Minister Burkhalter said, "Thank you very much Mr. Prime Minister. Shalom, Ani Same’ach lihiyot beyisrael [Hello, I am happy to be in Israel.] And if you can come to Switzerland, where you are any time invited, then I can show you the referendum, how it works, because we have all the time referendum, and you can come any time, and you can chose the time – you will have a referendum. But thank you very much for the welcome. I was already once 30 years ago, and it was a very good memory. Thank you very much for the welcome, and I hope we can have very good discussion together."