PA stability is in Israel’s interest, says minister

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz (L) and Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority (R)

It is in Israel’s interest to have a strong and stable Palestinian Authority, the Israeli communications minister announced yesterday.

Yoaz Handel told Kan that he was against the meeting held recently between the Israeli Defence Minister, Benny Gantz, and the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas. “If a meeting of this kind helps Gantz—it’s his decision. I personally would not do it,” he said.

“The Israeli government does not trust the Palestinians on security issues, but we have an interest in the PA not collapsing,” Handel reiterated, adding that there were many “mediators between Israel and the PA.

READ: Ex-Israeli minister calls for assassinating Hamas leaders over rocket fire

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.