Israel will press ahead in peace talks with the Palestinian Authority despite recent bloodshed, Ehud Olmert said.
The Israeli prime minister, defying right-wing calls to abandon negotiations with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas after last week’s terror attack at Jerusalem’s Mercaz Harav yeshiva, said Monday he “will not give up hope.”
“Despite the pain, the difficulties and the terror threatening many of the State of Israel’s citizens, we will not give up on making a tremendous effort to take another significant, important and dramatic step that might bring us to an opportunity for real reconciliation,” Olmert said in a speech.
He called on Abbas, who has also professed a desire to pursue peace negotiations, to undertake whatever measures are needed to soften Palestinian resistance to the idea of permanent coexistence with the Jewish state.
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