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Lapid: Abbas Is Not a Partner for Peace, a Different Mechanism for Peace Talks Is Needed
(Washington Post) Yair Lapid interviewed by Ruth Eglash - Q: Do you believe Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is a partner for peace? Lapid: Many times, President Abbas has proved not to be a partner for peace. Three times over the past 15 years, the Palestinians were offered more than 90% of what they are asking for and three times they said no. They must understand they are not going to get everything they want. The Palestinians have this mantra, that Abbas is the last of the Tunis generation [those who founded the Palestine Liberation Organization], that he is the last person capable of signing a deal with Israel. But it is the other way around - because he is part of the Tunis generation, he cannot sign anything. Since the Oslo accords, there have been 11 rounds of bilateral talks and all of them came out to the same nothing. If we are going to do this, then there needs to be a different mechanism. I have been pushing a regional conference that will include many of the players who are involved anyway - Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. Yair Lapid, head of the Israeli opposition Yesh Atid party, is a former finance minister.