(Ynet News) Attila Somfalvi and Alexandra Lukash - Minister of National Infrastructure Yuval Steinitz, a member of the Security Cabinet, said Thursday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas "buried" the peace process, in light of Abbas' belligerent remarks on Sunday in Ramallah and Wednesday in Cairo. "[There will be no further negotiations] as long as Abbas is the Palestinian leader, and so long as the moderate Palestinian leadership does not recognize the right of the Jews to a state of their own," Steinitz told Ynet. "Abbas is taking a very radical line. It is true that he says he will not take the way of terrorism, but he basically promotes it - with stipends for the families of terrorists who succeeded in killing Israelis. This time, though, what he said showed even greater support for acts of violence and terror against Israelis." Abbas showed "amazing ignorance [with] the things he said about Cromwell, the British leader who, according to him, wanted to send the Jews on the ships of the Dutch fleet to Israel about 400 years ago as a plot [against the Palestinians]." Steinitz explained that Cromwell actually "invited the Jews to settle in Britain." "[Abbas] thwarted any attempt...even when [former Prime Minister Ehud] Barak offered him half of Jerusalem...to come close to a peace agreement and did so because...he really does not believe that the Jews have the right...to self-determination and to a state of their own. If Abbas does not change his positions, there is no chance for a peace process."
2018-01-19 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive