(Prime Minister's Office) Prime Minister Netanyahu told a press conference for the international media on Thursday: Q (BBC): If you don't believe negotiations are the way forward, what is the way out? Netanyahu: Are we living on the same planet? I've been calling for resuming negotiations day in, day out, in every forum. I've called on President Abbas to resume unconditional negotiations immediately. We can meet right now. I'm willing to meet him, he's not willing to meet me. And you ask me about the resumption of negotiations? Come on. These people don't want negotiations, and they're inciting violence. Direct your questions to them. President Abbas has to stop this incitement. You just saw examples of him lying: "An innocent child executed by Israelis." No. He's not innocent and he wasn't executed. He tried to murder innocent people, almost succeeded. You can't give Abbas a pass. When you give somebody a pass when they're inciting violence, they continue to incite violence. This wave of attacks is not the result of a lack of a political horizon. We've been suffering terror attacks for the last 95 years. They're attacking us because they don't want us here. If they're frustrated, I assure you that frustration will continue because we're going to continue to be here. The killers themselves explain why they're doing what they're doing. They leave behind Facebook pages in which they cite and repeat Palestinian incitement about the al-Aqsa Mosque. All the lies that are said about us trying to bring down the mosque or change the status quo, they cite that as the reason for their activity. This is what is driving this current wave. There's a Palestinian attempt to inflame violence based on the false allegations that we are changing the Temple Mount. I expect our friends around the world to look at these facts, recognize them for what they are and condemn these Palestinian attacks and to demand from Abbas to stop the incitement and to restore calm. Q: The U.S. State Department has been somewhat concerned about excessive use of force used by some Israeli security forces. Netanyahu: What do you think would happen in New York if you saw people rushing into crowds trying to murder people? Do you think they would do anything different from what we're doing? They might, actually, but certainly not less. People are making a moral symmetry, at best, between the attacker and his victim, and much worse, they're accusing Israel of being the guilty party in this case. And that just will not fly. The first order of the day in fighting terrorism is moral clarity. Nothing justifies terrorism. Nothing exonerates it. Stop trying to explain it away. Abbas is inciting murder. Make him accountable and stop trying to justify it in any way - not with settlements, not with the peace process, not with anything.
2015-10-16 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive