Netanyahu calls on Abbas for talks, but says local peace won’t solve problems of entire region

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called his Palestinian counterpart to the negotiating table Tuesday night, while rebuffing the notion that an Israeli-Palestinian agreement would bring peace to the entire Middle East.

In a wide-ranging policy address at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu asked Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to restart peace talks and laid out the Jewish state’s many threats, including Iran and missile-laden neighbors.

Israel “does not wish to govern the Palestinians,” Netanyahu said, but added that Jerusalem demands that the Palestinians recognize the Jewish state as legitimate.

Referencing earlier speeches in which he endorsed a two-state solution, the prime minister called on Abbas “not to pass up this opportunity” to achieve peace.

However, Netanyahu added that Israeli-Palestinian peace is not a panacea for the problems in the region, and that extremists on both sides will always try to ruin any peace arrangement between the two peoples.

Addressing Iran’s nuclear program, Netanyahu called on the world to step up sanctions, and said allowing Tehran to enrich uranium to 20 percent was unfeasible.

“I say with satisfaction that the sanctions are pressuring them… but the real test will be if they [the Iranians] agree to dismantle their nuclear reactors and stop their enrichment program,” Netanyahu said. He added that Iran should also get rid of the enriched uranium it currently has in its possession.

Netanyahu said that the demand for Iran to stop enriching uranium at 3.5 percent — a request made by the P5+1 world powers in the last round of nuclear talks in Baghdad — was ignored by the Iranians. “Instead,” he said, “it has become clear that their enrichment levels have surpassed 20 percent.”

Earlier in the day, former head of the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate Amos Yadlin told the same forum that the aftermath of a military operation in Iran would pose a greater threat to Israel’s security than Iran having nuclear weapons.

Yadlin said that Israeli thinking on Iran should not be locked within the alternatives of Israeli bombing Iran and Iran bombing Israel. “It is important to develop a strategy for the day after the attack,” he said.

The prime minister didn’t speak about the Flame virus targeting Iranian computers which was discovered Monday, and which some have blamed Israel for, but reiterated Jerusalem’s commitment to securing its own digital borders.

He cited the creation of a new cybersecurity institute and said that Israel intends to become one of the five leaders in the field.

Referring to the “flood of infiltrators” — the government term for asylum-seekers in Israel — Netanyahu said the state would need to deport the migrants, starting with those from South Sudan, and continue to build its security fence along the border with Egypt.

“Our country is too small to house hundreds of thousands of migrants,” he said, but added that Israel would comply with international law and protect their human rights.