Netanyahu: Abbas has to choose between peace with Hamas or Israel

Israeli officials have strongly rejected the Palestinian reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has to choose between either peace with Israel or with Hamas, while Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman asserted that executing the reconciliation agreement would mean the end of the negotiations.

In remarks to reporters at a meeting with Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurtz, Netanyahu asked: “Does (Abbas) want peace with Hamas or peace with Israel?” He added that the two options cannot be met at the same time: “You can have one but not the other. I hope he chooses peace. So far he hasn’t done so.”

On his part, Lieberman said that signing an agreement to form a unity government between Fatah and Hamas is the same as “signing the termination of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority”.

Meanwhile, Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett noted that: “Hamas will keep murdering Jews and Abbas will keep wanting prisoner releases,” adding “Whoever thought of Abbas as a partner should rethink that idea.”

During a meeting with Israeli journalists on Tuesday Abbas said that in order to continue the negotiations, Israel must first commit to freezing settlement activity in the occupied territories and to focus on demarcating the borders of a future Palestinian state. He also threatened that Israel will have to bear the burden of ruling the Palestinian territories, administratively and financially, if the peace talks between the two sides collapse.

In response to these comments, Netanyahu accused Abbas of making unacceptable demands. “We’re trying to re-launch the negotiations with the Palestinians. Every time we get to that point (Abbas) stacks on additional conditions which he knows that Israel cannot give,” Netanyahu said.

Source: Arabs 48