Netanyahu: Abbas, not I, runs away from peace talks

Netanyahu tells the Knesset on Monday that the Arab League’s peace initiative could be a basis for peace talks with the Palestinians, but only in a revised form.

“If it’s a script, then certainly we cannot [agree to it]. If it’s a basis to open talks, then sure,” he says.

“My ideal solution is a disarmed Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state,” he adds, but laments that there is “no mutual recognition.”

If a Palestinian state is founded, “will it be a Switzerland? Or will it be a Fatah state? A Hamastan?”

There are no peace talks, Netanyahu insists, because PA President Mahmoud Abbas “runs away, runs away, runs away, because he knows that he will have to make concessions — concessions on Jaffa, concessions on Acre, concessions on Beersheba. This is the simple truth.”

— Marissa Newman