Gantz defends meetings with Abbas in wake of ‘despicable’ holocaust comments

Defense Minister Gantz is defending his recent meetings with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the wake of Abbas’s comments accusing Israel of  committing  “50 holocausts.”

Gantz says his meetings with Abbas were necessary due to ongoing security coordination between Israel and the PA.

“We manage a complex security and political reality, the consequences of which we saw only a week ago in the region,” Gantz says during a tour of the south following last week’s fighting with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza.

Abbas’s “words are despicable and false. I demanded that he retract them and it is good that he did so,” Gantz says.

“I hear the criticism of my conversations and that of the security establishment with the leadership of the Palestinian Authority and in the field. I will continue to do everything necessary to maintain security stability, guarantee the freedom of action of the State of Israel, and above all to protect human life,” Gantz says, urging his opponents not to play politics with Israel’s security.