When the FDFA forgets to appeal

From Sacha Wigdorovits

Last Monday, US President Donald Trump presented his 20-point plan for peace in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was with him in the White House during the presentation. The latter officially assured Trump in front of the assembled media that his country supported the plan. The Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, without whose approval the plan can hardly be implemented, assured a short time later that it would “examine” it. And has so far remained officially silent.

The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) did the same to Hamas to a certain extent. The FDFA stated that it welcomed the plan. It stated that it supports any initiative that enables the protection of the civilian population, the release of all hostages and access to humanitarian aid, as well as forming the basis for a lasting peace based on the two-state solution.

The FDFA only “forgot” to mention two things: expressing its delight that Israel had agreed to the plan and appealing to Hamas to do the same.

This omission distinguishes the Swiss Foreign Ministry from the German Foreign Ministry, for example, which called on Hamas to approve the plan. Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni did the same. French President Emanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also demanded that the terrorist organization accept the plan. And the Muslim states of Turkey, Egypt and Qatar, the terrorist organization’s largest protecting power alongside Iran, and of course the USA itself, did the same.

It is by no means the case that the FDFA would otherwise be stingy with appeals in the Middle East conflict. Our foreign policy officials are constantly appealing to Israel to behave decently and in accordance with the rules.

Just recently, the FDFA posted an appeal to Israel on the “X” platform to maintain “proportionality” and “ensure the safety of participants” when taking action against the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was co-financed and co-organized by Hamas and included 500 pro-Palestinian activists.

Incidentally, the action by the Israeli navy to stop the flotilla around 100 kilometers from Gaza was non-violent. It goes without saying that the FDFA did not react to this with “relief” or “satisfaction”, let alone thank Israel for it.

But that’s just it: Accusing the Jewish state of possible misconduct and therefore admonishing it to keep order is popular in the FDFA, which is led on paper by Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis. On the other hand, it does not seem desirable to demand that the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas agree to a plan that would not only bring peace to Israel, but above all to its own population in Gaza and make a future worth living possible.

On Friday, four days after Hamas had still not officially commented on the peace plan, US President Trump then blew a gasket. He gave the terrorist organization until Sunday to agree to the plan. After that, it would be “quickly extinguished”.

Sacha Wigdorovits is President of the Fokus Israel und Nahost association, which runs the website fokusisrael.ch. He studied history, German and social psychology at the University of Zurich and has worked as a US correspondent for the SonntagsZeitung, was editor-in-chief of BLICK and co-founder of the commuter newspaper 20minuten.