Washington
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday to “tear up” his pact with Hamas, saying Israel would not take part in Middle East peace talks with a Palestinian government backed by the Islamist group.
Netanyahu also said Abbas’s comments earlier yesterday denouncing the Holocaust could not be reconciled with his alliance with Hamas.
“President Abbas has to decide whether he wants a pact with Hamas or peace with Israel. He cannot speak out of both sides of his mouth. He cannot embrace Hamas and say that he wants peace with Israel,” Netanyahu said.
“In fact, what I say to him very simply is this: President Abbas, tear up your pact with Hamas. Recognise the Jewish state. Make peace. I hope you do that. But you can’t have Hamas and peace with Israel.”
Israel suspended US-sponsored peace talks with the Palestinians on Thursday after Abbas announced a unity pact with the rival Palestinian group. Hamas is viewed by the US, the EU and Israel as a terrorist organisation.
In an appearance on CNN programme State of the Union, Netanyahu reiterated that Israel would not negotiate with a government backed by Hamas.
Apparently seeking to build bridges, Abbas said in a statement released yesterday that the Nazi Holocaust was “the most heinous crime” against humanity in modern times.
Abbas, whose words coincided with Israel’s annual remembrance day for victims of the Holocaust, has condemned the mass killings of Jews in the Second World War before and challenged allegations, stemming from a 1983 book he authored, that he is a Holocaust denier.
“President Abbas can’t have it both ways. He can’t say the Holocaust is terrible but at the same time embrace those who deny the Holocaust and seek to perpetrate another destruction of the Jewish people,” Netanyahu said.
— Reuters
