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Netanyahu says world leaders must pressure PA to recognise Jewish state
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday urged the international community to end the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) refusal to recognise Israel as a characteristically Jewish state, explaining that a peace agreement cannot be concluded without it.
Speaking to his Likud-Beitenu faction, Netanyahu related to a weekend interview in the New York Times with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, in which Abbas described recognition of Israel as a Jewish state as “out of the question.” Netanyahu said that Abbas “knows that there will not be a deal without recognition of the nation-state,” explaining that it would be “absurd” for Israel to accept a nation-state for the Palestinian people without mutual recognition for a nation-state of the Jewish people.
In what appeared to be a reference to the weekend warning by US Secretary of State John Kerry that boycott efforts against Israel could increase if peace talks collapse, Netanyahu said he expects “international actors, who until now have solely put pressure on Israel, will make clear to the Palestinian Authority what exactly will happen to the Palestinians if there will not be an agreement.” He added that, “unless the Palestinians understand that they will pay a price for the failure of peace talks, they will prefer not to continue the talks.”
Having spoken to Kerry on Sunday evening, Netanyahu reported to his faction that Kerry had reiterated “that he opposes boycotts against Israel. This is an important clarification.” Netanyahu added, “We trust the United States will continue to actively oppose any boycotts against Israel.”
In his New York Times interview, Abbas also suggested that under a peace deal, Israel could conduct a phased five-year military withdrawal from Palestinian areas, to be replaced by international peacekeepers. However, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett dismissed the idea, saying “when things heat up, they [peacekeepers] run away,” citing their ineffectiveness in southern Lebanon. Labour Party leader Isaac Herzog told his faction that “Agree or not, at least he [Abbas] has a plan.”