JERUSALEM (JTA) — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reportedly threatened to dismantle the P.A.
Citing unnamed Palestinian sources, the Israeli daily Yediot Acharonot wrote Sunday that Abbas was considering the unilateral action, which would leave Israel with full responsibility for the Palestinians living in the West Bank. The action would annul the 1993 Oslo Accords.
“A new generation arrives and asks us: ‘What have you done?’ I am now 79 years old, I cannot escape from passing off the flag,” Abbas said in a weekend interview with the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm, according to Yediot. “The settlements endanger the peace process, and the new generation sees the two-state solution is becoming less and less likely, and that there is no escape from the one-state solution.”
Unless Palestinian and Israeli negotiators agree to extend peace negotiations, the current round of talks is scheduled to end on April 29, likely without an agreement.
Naftali Bennett, Israel’s economy minister and Jewish Home party chairman, responded, telling Ynet, “Abu Mazen encourages terror against Israel as the head of the Palestinian Authority, and then threatens that he’ll quit his job,” but “the people of Israel do not negotiate with the barrel of a gun pointed at their head.”
On his Facebook page, Bennett posted a brief history of the peace process and the results.
“The left used to say: Give away Judea and Samaria for peace. Instead it brought us war,” the post began, referring to the West Bank. “So then they said: Give away Judea and Samaria for security. Instead it brought terrorism. Over 1,000 Israelis were killed in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem.”
Concluding the post, Bennett wrote, “Now they are saying: Give away Judea and Samaria, otherwise Abbas will go home. You know what? Let him go home.”
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