Frank-Walter Steinmeier condemned Palestinian terror and called for serious negotiations aimed at a fair, two-state solution, which the Palestinians have repeatedly rejected.
Germany’s foreign minister says the situation in the Palestinian territories isn’t sustainable in the long term.
In an op-ed published ahead of a joint German-Israeli Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Frank-Walter Steinmeier condemned the near-daily terrorist attacks by Palestinians against israelis that have killed 30 victims as “despicable terror.”
In the article for the Bild daily, Steinmeier stressed Germany’s view that only serious negotiations aimed at a fair, two-state solution can offer hope of peace for Israel and the Palestinians.
His op-ed was published just a day after Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister Riad Al-Malki stated that the Palestinians will “never again” engage Israel in direct negotiations towards a final diplomatic resolution to their dispute with Israel.
“We will never go back and sit again in a direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations,” he stated while on a visit to Japan on Monday with Palestinian Authority (PA) head Mahmoud Abbas.
The meeting in Berlin, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, highlights the strong bond between Israel and Germany seven decades after the Holocaust, when Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews in the Holocaust.
By: AP and United with Israel Staff