Mahmoud Abbas “has to choose. Does he want peace with Hamas or peace with Israel? You can have one but not the other,’’ said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday as it was reported that the two main rival Palestinian factions, the Palestine Liberation Organization, which runs the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and Hamas, the Islamic group which controls Gaza signed a reconciliation agreement to form a unity government and to call for new elections.
Netanyahu, who made de remarks during a meeting with visiting Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, warned Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that a reconciliation deal with the terrorist organization ruling Gaza would mean the end of the current, US-mediated effort to negotiate a peace deal.
“You’re coming at an important time,” Netanyahu told the Austrian minister. “We’re trying to relaunch the negotiations with the Palestinians. Every time we get to that point, Abbas stacks on an additional condition, which he knows that Israel cannot give.’’
“Instead of moving into peace with Israel, he’s moving into peace with Hamas,” Netanyahu said. “He has to choose: Does he want peace with Hamas or peace with Israel? You can have one but not the other. I hope he chooses peace; so far he hasn’t done so.”
Netanyahu said Israel was trying to extend peace negotiations with the Palestinians beyond their April 29 deadline, but blamed Abbas for “raising additional conditions” that he knows Jerusalem cannot accept.
Abbas told a group of Israeli journalists Tuesday that the Palestinians would agree to extend negotiations with Israel by nine months on the condition that Israel agreed to immediately commence discussing the borders of the future Palestinian state, and froze settlement construction, including in East Jerusalem. According to Israeli officials, ‘’the meaning of all these things is that Abbas is not interested in peace.
“Someone who wants peace does not present time after time conditions he knows Israel cannot accept.”
While claiming he was interested in a peace deal, Abbas has consistently refused to recognize the Jewish state, insisted on the freeing of Palestinian prisoners convicted of murdering Israelis, encouraged Palestinian incitement to violence and glorified terrorists.
Hamas and the Fatah-dominated PLO have been at loggerheads since 2007, when the Hamas violently seized Gaza from Abbas in 2007, leaving him with only parts of the West Bank. Both sides have become entrenched in their territories, with Hamas using Gaza to fire thousands of rockets at Israel over the years, drawing two large scale Israeli offensives.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who initiated the deal with the PA, said it was necessary “in order to form one government, one political system and one national program” for the Palestinian Arabs.