Due to the failed peace talks, the PA leader threatened to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, adding that a bi-national state would replace the Jewish State.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Photo: Issam RImawi/Flash90)
Earlier this month, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, following a deadlock in the peace talks, threatened to take unilateral steps towards the establishment of a Palestinian state. This weekend he issued a new threat against Israel if it refuses to adhere to his demands: the dismantling of the PA and the inevitability of a bi-national state to replace the State of Israel.
In an interview with Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm over the weekend, the PA leader, acknowledging that he is close to 80 and that a new leader would soon replace him, said:
“The younger generation is sensing that the two-state solution is slipping away, and it is instead leaning toward a solution of a bi-national state. As long as I am the leader, however, I support a two-state solution, and not a bi-national state.”
Abbas, who has refused Israel’s basic demand in the negotiations to recognize the Jewish State and who continues to glorify terrorists and encourage incitement to violence against Israel, claimed in the interview that he has been striving for peace.
He also stated that the U.S. “has the tools to pressure Israel, and it is capable of doing so,” and he threatened to dismantle the Palestinian Authority if negotiations completely break down.
Naftali Bennett (Photo: Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
Abbas “encourages terrorism against Israel as the head of the Palestinian Authority, and then he threatens us with his resignation,” Economy Minister Naftali Bennett declared on Sunday. “With threats like this, who needs good blessings?”
Bennett is also chair of the national-religious Jewish Home party, which supports Jewish sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.
“If he [Abbas] wants to leave, we won’t stop him,” he stated. “The Jewish people will not negotiate with a gun to their heads.”
To date, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not commented on Abbas’s threats.
Date: Apr. 20, 2014