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Netanyahu: Palestinian intransigence scuppered talks, unilateral Israeli action being weighed
In an extensive interview with Bloomberg’s Jeffrey Goldberg published this morning, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Palestinian inflexibility scuppered peace talks and hinted that Israel is weighing unilateral steps as an alternative.
Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) were suspended in April after the Fatah faction headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas, which remains committed to Israel’s destruction, announced an agreement to form a unity government. In the interview, Netanyahu explained that “negotiations are always preferable,” but that, “No matter what the spin is about blaming Israel, do we actually expect Abbas, who seems to be embracing Hamas, to give a negotiated deal? In all likelihood, no.”
Netanyahu emphasised that he, in contrast to Abbas, has taken concrete action to compromise for the sake of peace, commenting, “I tried a 10-month [settlement] freeze, and Abbas did nothing. Then I did something that was the toughest of all … I released terrorist prisoners.” He added that Abbas has, “refused to entertain [US Secretary of State John] Kerry’s efforts to try and lock horns on the core issues.”
Netanyahu then set out his position, “We want a demilitarised Palestinian state that recognises the Jewish state,” but asked, “How do you get that if you can’t get it through negotiations?” He said that in Israel, “the idea of taking unilateral steps is gaining ground, from the centre-left to the centre-right” and that, “Many Israelis are asking themselves if there are certain unilateral steps that could theoretically make sense.” However, Netanyahu emphasised that such action could not replicate the disengagement from Gaza in 2005, which “created Hamastan, from which thousands of rockets have been fired at our cities.”
Netanyahu also dismissed the idea that Israeli settlement construction is “the core of the problem,” pointing out that the conflict raged for decades before post-1967 settlement building began. Instead, Netanyahu suggested, “The real issue was and remains [Palestinian] opposition to the Jewish state.”