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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed peace talks with the Palestinians for the first time since the fall-out during his Sunday cabinet meeting. He spoke of Israel’s willingness’s to continue negotiations with the Palestinians despite their violation of agreements.
Netanyahu addressed the reason peace talks came to a dead-end, explaining, “Unfortunately, as we approached the talks’ deadline, the Palestinian leadership rushed to unilaterally join 14 international treaties. Thus the Palestinians significantly violated the agreements that were achieved. The threats to turn to the UN do not affect us. The Palestinians have plenty to lose in a unilateral step.”
He spoke of Israel’s proposal to extend peace talks as to create a legitimate peace deal stating, “Throughout these talks, we have taken tough steps and demonstrated willingness to continue executing difficult in the upcoming months as well to create a framework to allow ending the conflict.”
On the Palestinian Authority’s attempts to bypass talks and attempt to receive recognition by the UN as a state, Netanyahu stated that, “the Palestinians will get a state only through direct negotiations, and not through empty declarations, nor through unilateral actions that will only keep the peace agreement further away.”
The Palestinian Authority has threatened to take Israel to the International Criminal Court in the Hague on charges of war crimes against the Palestinians. Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas signed 15 treaties to international organizations in attempts to move forward with an attempt to bypass talks and receive state recognition.
Netanyahu responded to the PA’s actions stating that, “Unilateral steps by the Palestinians will be answered with unilateral steps on our part.”
On the Palestinian’s refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, Netanyahu stated,” Abbas rushed to declare he will not even discuss recognizing Israel as the national state of the Jewish people, not even discuss, not to mention agree. He did so even though he knows no agreement will be signed without the recognition of Israel as the national state of the Jewish people, something that the US president and other world leaders also made clear.”
The Prime Minister expressed the State of Israel’s willingness to continue talks, but not “at any price.”
The Knesset (Israeli Parliament) has been called for a special session on the state of peace talks, the session called by 25 MK’s. Their reasons for calling the meeting during spring recess is due to requests by Members of Parliament to address the “crisis in negotiations with the Palestinians” as well as “the failure of the government regarding the release of Jonathan Pollard”.
Amir Tsarfati is the founder and president of Behold Israel, a news site to correct the scarcity in trustworthy reportage on issues and events impacting Israel, and to resolve the uncertainty about who or what to believe.
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
