Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the cabinet Sunday that Israel was weighing the French proposal of an international peace conference in July in Paris, but that Israel would not engage with a Palestinian Authority that includes Hamas.
"I listened to the proposal brought from French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe," Netanyahu said of the meeting he had with Juppe on Thursday. "We appreciate a great deal our French friends, and I will answer them after we consider matters. We will study this proposal and discuss it with our friends in the US. The Americans also want to promote initiatives, and we also have ideas of our own."
Netanyahu said that his government would consider how the French proposal fits in with others, and that it was clear that since not all of them could be implemented, it was best to focus on one idea and promote it.
Netanyahu said it was important to reiterate that Israel would not deal with a Palestinian government, "half of which is made up of Hamas, a terrorist organization that seeks to destroy Israel."
The prime minister said he made clear to Juppe that for Israel to engage with a unified Palestinian government Hamas would have to accept the three conditions set by the Quartet: forswearing terrorism, recognizing Israel, and accepting previous Israeli-Palestinians agreements.
Netanyahu said that if it is true, as he said some were claiming, that there was a "new spirit" in Hamas, then the organization could prove that by freeing kidnapped soldier Gilad Schalit. And if PA President Mahmoud Abbas now has "such a good connection" with Hamas, then he should be able to get them to free Schalit, Netanyahu said.
Not all ministers, however, believe that Israel should be nodding positively toward the French proposal.
Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar (Likud) issued a statement saying that the issue was raised at the Likud ministers’ meeting before the cabinet, and he expressed reservations saying that the proposal was "problematic" for Israel because it included two components that Israel has already rejected: using the 1967 lines as the baseline for negotiations, and deferring discussion of other core issues, such as refugees, until a later date.
"As a result of this," Sa’ar said, "Israel could find itself agreeing to a territorial withdrawal and afterward coming up against a demand to return Palestinian refugees to Israel. We need to be firm on our diplomatic principles: to simultaneously discuss all final status issues without first determining the end of the negotiations on any one issue."
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