As his Fatah party continues with a campaign of incitement glorifying stabbing attacks against Jews, Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday blasted Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and claimed he is not interested in peace talks.
Abbas’s claim came in a letter to the heads of Arab and Jewish local authorities in the Galilee, who recently called on Abbas and Netanyahu to resume talks.
The heads of the local authorities had written a letter to the two leaders in which they said that they believe that “a brave meeting the between two leaders can lead us from a situation of crisis to an opportunity. In our view, a meeting between you would lead to a dialogue which could bring hope for two peoples.”
Abbas, however, rejected the calls and, in a response letter blamed Netanyahu for the impasse in peace talks.
“I am willing to be present at any meeting which will lead to a just and comprehensive peace, and it is certain that whoever wants peace does not place preconditions or adopts programs that undermine the two-state solution and negotiations, while building settlements and denying all the agreements since the Oslo Accords,” Abbas charged.
“The Palestinian leadership has expressed on many occasions its willingness to return to the negotiating table, but it does not want the talks to be bland, but rather for sincere negotiations with the goal of a final agreement between the parties, and in order for such a process to be successful, the Israeli government and its leader must demonstrate a real desire,” he continued.
“Any continuation of negotiations without a clear timetable and without the goals of a final agreement clearly presented will be empty and lead us to despair and failure, that only the extremists whose goal is to decrease the incitement would benefit from,” said Abbas. He added he would be happy to meet with the mayors and chat with them in his Ramallah headquarters.
The letter ignores the fact that it was Abbas himself, during his recent speech at the UN General Assembly, who declared to the world that the PA is no longer committed to the 1994 Oslo Accords.
It also ignores the fact that Netanyahu has indicated he was “open” to negotiations with Abbas. In response to Netanyahu’s call, the PA foreign minister Riad al-Malki imposed conditions on a potential meeting between the two.
Al-Malki said that, among other things, the Palestinians demand a “return to the status quo that existed since 1778”, as he put it, and that Israel stop collective punishment and withdraw all its troops from “occupied areas.”
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