by Shlomo Cesana and Gideon Allon
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells Likud Convention he plans to promote legislation that defines Israel as Jewish and democratic, leaving no room for claims otherwise • Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon says Hamas-Fatah deal unlikely to work.
|
Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
|
Photo credit: Yossi
Zeliger  |
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Wednesday
that the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the refusal to recognize
Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people.
"The conflict has been ongoing for 90 years," Netanyahu
said at the Likud Convention in Tel Aviv. "It is not continuing because of the
settlements, because of the territories -- it exists and continues because of
the ongoing refusal to recognize Israel as the national home of the Jewish
people.
"I intend to put forward legislation on this topic --
Israel as a Jewish and democratic state -- so that there will be no doubts and
also no room for people to make claims about the anthem, the Law of Return or
the national land, or any of the other elements that make up our national
being," Netanyahu added.
The prime minister had similar things to say at an earlier
meeting in Jerusalem with the American organization, Friends of the Israel
Defense Forces. "Our basic demand is that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a
Jewish state," he said. "Recently, [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas] has said that he is not even willing to discuss recognition of Israel as
a Jewish state, and then he went and signed a deal with the terrorist
organization Hamas."
Despite concerns over the implications of Abbas joining
forces with a known terrorist group, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon believes the
Fatah-Hamas deal will not be implemented. "I do not think Hamas and Fatah will
be able to resolve their differences, and therefore they won't even reach the
point of an election," Ya'alon said at a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee
meeting.
Ya'alon clarified that even if the deal does go through,
Israel would not allow Hamas to participate in elections in Judea and Samaria,
as it did in the past.
"There is no partner on the other side," Ya'alon said.
"That is the reality."
He continued, "Our soldiers are intelligent enough to understand
the complicated reality on the ground and to deal with it."
Shlomo Cesana and Gideon Allon
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=17359
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
No comments:
Post a Comment