Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a peace agreement with the Palestinians can be reached through talks, and not with United Nations’ diktats.
Speaking in Paris, where he met Thursday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the Israeli Prime Minister said a possible recognition of a Palestinian state by the United Nations would hinder the peace process.
He said that France wants the new Palestinian unity government between Fatah and Hamas to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and that Sarkozy was committed to not accept a Palestinian government that supports terror.
"What I heard from President Sarkozy is that they must recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people," Netanyahu told journalists when he left the Elysee Palace in Paris after his meeting.
"I heard similar things yesterday in Britain and think that in Paris and in London there's an understanding that whoever wants to make peace must commit to peace and not to the complete opposite," he said.
"I think that's an important development. Anybody who wants to destroy Israel is not a partner for peace,” he added.
He said he sees no change in the Hamas movement’s position toward Israel after it reached an agreement on reconciliation with the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmud Abbas.
"Hamas has not abandoned the goal of destroying Israel,” Netanyahu said. Hamas "is not a partner for peace."
Netanyahu was in France after visiting Britain where he met with British Prime Minister David Cameron.
France as well as Britain are considering recognizing a Palestinian state in September but Cameron made it clear that the Palestinians must reject terror, recognize Israel and engage in peace process before declaring a state.
In a statement released to journalists, Downing Street indicated that "Prime Minister Cameron said that any new Palestinian government must reject violence, recognize Israel's right to exist and engage in the peace process, and that Britain would judge it by its actions."
Cameron aloso assured Netanyahu that his country is a staunch ally of Israel.
In an interview with L’Express weekly, Sarkozy said France would be willing to recognize a Palestinian state if there was no progress in peace talks.
"If the peace process resumed in the summer, France will say that the main parties much talk without pushing forward the schedule," Sarkozy he said.
"If, conversely, the peace process remains stalled in September, France will take responsibility on the central question of recognizing a Palestinian state."
He added that Europe, the largest donor to the Palestinians, "will not remain a political dwarf in this matter." Peace "will not happen if the US does not get more involved, but the Americans will not succeed alone," Sarkozy he said.
The French President welcomed the recent reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, saying that "nothing is possible" in the peace process without it.
According to The Jerusalem Post, Sarah Netanyahu, has asked Sarkozy's wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, to help free Gilad Shalit, detained by Hamas since 2006, citing Shalit's dual French citizenship.