|
Trending Topics
|
Source: http://newsfromrussia.com/world/2005/11/05/67012.html
Former Israeli Chief of Staff: Abbas "Uses Weakness as an Excuse"
(AP/Pravda-Russia) AP - Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is not exercising leadership and a settlement with Israel based on two states living side by side in peace is impossible in the immediate future, retired Israeli military chief of staff Moshe Yaalon said Friday. "He appears as weak. He is not so weak," Yaalon said. "He uses weakness as an excuse." Criticizing Abbas for not dismantling violent groups in Palestinian-held areas, Yaalon said, "We thought, and I was one of them, that Mahmoud Abbas will lead the Palestinian Authority in another direction than Yasser Arafat." But "he prefers to keep them in power as a tool" and has allowed Hamas to keep its weapons. "I haven't seen leadership on the Palestinian side that is ready for a two-state solution," Yaalon added. He said Israel does not want to control millions of Palestinians, "but we don't want to be in a situation without defensible borders." Yaalon spoke at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he will be a resident for a year.