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Source: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3961078,00.html
Israel: Settlement Freeze Issue "Just an Excuse" for Abbas
(Ynet News) Yitzhak Benhorin - Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Monday in New York that discussion of West Bank settlement construction "is just an excuse" for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to quit budding peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. "For nine months the Palestinians claimed that the [settlement construction] freeze is a ploy, and now they have turned it into a lynchpin," he said. After Abbas announced he is awaiting the upcoming meeting of the Arab League on Oct. 4 to decide on whether to continue talks with Israel, Lieberman asserted, "If the Arab League is seeking challenges to deal with, there are many in the Arab world. Hundreds of people are killed each week in terrorist attacks, and poverty and despair cry out to the heavens....Instead of solving these problems, the leaders of the Arab League prefer to run away from them, and blame Israel for all their internal problems. Instead of dialogue, they prefer to incite the masses against the Jews."