From the Liveblog of
Friday, September 22, 2023
Netanyahu tears into Abbas over Holocaust comments; says Palestinians must reconcile to Jewish rights
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proceeds to lay into the Palestinian Authority and its president Mahmoud Abbas.
As the circle of peace expands, a real path to “genuine peace with our Palestinian neighbors can finally be achieved.”
“But there is a caveat,” he says. “Peace can only be achieved if it is based on truth,” he says. “It cannot be based on lies. It cannot be based on endless vilification of the Jewish people.”
He blasts Abbas for “spreading the horrible antisemitic conspiracies against the Jewish people and the Jewish state.” Noting Abbas’s antisemitic speech last month, he says, “I mean, he recently said that Hitler wasn’t an antisemite. You can’t make this up. But he did. He said that.”
And he says the PA must stop glorifying terrorists and stop the ghoulish practice of giving money to Palestinian terrorists for killing Jews. “It must stop, for peace to prevail.”
Antisemitism must stop everywhere, including university campuses and “the halls of the United Nations.”
“For peace to prevail, the Palestinians must stop spewing Jew-hatred and finally reconcile themselves to the Jewish state … to the right of the Jewish people to have a state of their own in their historic homeland, the Land of Israel.”
“The people of Israel learn for such a peace. I yearn for such peace,” he says.
Netanyahu also refers to his military service. “These experiences taught me the cost of war,” he says. “I buried my older brother…
“There are many hurdles on the extraordinary path to peace that I’ve just described. But I’m committed to doing everything I can to overcome these hurdles, to forge a better future for Israel and all of our peoples — all the peoples in our region.”
Netanyahu says he “deeply appreciates” US President Joe Biden’s commitment to peace. “We share the same optimism for what can be achieved… The United States of America is indispensable in this effort.
“And just as we achieved the Abraham Accords with the leadership of President Trump, I believe we can achieve peace with Saudi Arabia with the leadership of President Biden,” he says.
