by Israel Hayom Staff
Peace deal between Israel, Palestinians could be signed on paper, but as long as the Palestinians still educate their youth to hate Israelis, peace "will blow up in our faces," says defense minister • Abbas: Israeli intransigence hindering peace process.
Defense Minister Moshe
(Bogie) Ya'alon (center) at Monday's briefing, with Foreign Affairs and
Defense Committee Chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman.
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Photo credit: Ariel Hermoni  |
Peace agreements between Israel and the
Palestinians could be signed on paper, but as long as the Palestinians
still educate their youth to hate Israelis, the peace "will blow up in
our faces," Defense Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya'alon said Monday.
Giving a security assessment briefing at the
Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, his first as defense
minister, Ya'alon also said that the Palestinian Authority's threats to
walk away from the two-state solution should not be taken seriously, as
it was also not in their interests to land up with a binational state.
"The crux of the matter is education in the
Palestinian Authority, and if I open a PA textbook and see that Israel
doesn't appear on the map, or that Tel Aviv is designated as a
settlement, and when a 3-year-old boy is brought up to admire suicide
bombers -- you can sign any agreement and in the end it will blow up in
your face," Ya'alon said. "All that fuss over the idea that if the
Palestinians throw away their keys, that the PA will collapse? The
Palestinians don't want that to happen. It's the same as far as a
binational state. They also have no interest in that happening."
Speaking about prospects for peace with the
Palestinians, Ya'alon said that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was
touring around the region with the intention of giving a boost to the
diplomatic process.
"At this stage, the Palestinian side is making it difficult for them to engage," Ya'alon said.
"We're ready to begin the process immediately
without preconditions, and discuss all the issues, just not those
concerning territory. We don't want to rule the Palestinians. We're
ready to advance the diplomatic process, which [Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud] Abbas is avoiding by setting preconditions. We are
unwilling to pay a price just for them to come to the table. As long as
what is being discussed is territory, Abbas is interested. As long as
we're not interested in entering talks based entirely on territory, he's
doing his best to avoid [the diplomatic process]. I supported the Oslo
[accords], but the second I saw that our very existence was in question,
I started to have doubts."
Ya'alon said the terror threat in Judea and Samaria was very real, and what was staving it off was the IDF's freedom to act.
"Since April last year, we've seen
Palestinians go out onto the streets, initially against the economic
situation, and corruption in the PA. Only later did they direct it
against us," Ya'alon said. "There is a particularly severe phenomenon,
and that's stone throwing and incendiary attacks. IDF Central Command
has bolstered its troops, and has deployed more quality forces. The
IDF's function is to deal with these violent phenomena, and that's
what's going to happen."
As for Israel's image abroad, Ya'alon said,
"We are being attacked over the issue of [West Bank] settlements. If
we're talking about peace and coexistence, why are the Palestinians
demanding territory free of Jews? We can come up with a lot of ideas, so
I suggest we don't focus only the settlements."
Meanwhile, a senior U.S. official disputed the
notion that Kerry was naive and said the Obama administration was
prepared to abandon the effort if it judged that the Israelis and
Palestinians were not serious about pursuing peace.
"That's what shows he's not naive," said the
official of Kerry's willingness to pull back if he did not see both
sides as ready. "There's too many things going on in the world ... You
could bang your head on this for years and years and years."
Meanwhile, Abbas told Saudi newspaper Al-Watan that the PA "would not return to negotiations" unless Israel agreed to a settlement freeze and accepted a two-state solution based on pre-1967 borders. He said Israeli intransigence on this issue was preventing the diplomatic process from moving forward.
The PA president told Al-Watan he was committed to east
Jerusalem -- captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War -- as the
future capital of the Palestinian state, and that there was "no room to
compromise" on this.
Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=9725
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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