Itongadol.- "There’s a reason that Abu Mazen entered into a joint government with Hamas," Israel\’s foreign minister said.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said on Friday that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ remarks before the UN General Assembly in New York showed him to be “Yasser Arafat’s successor in other ways.”
“Abu Mazen’s statements to the UN General Assembly clearly illustrate that he doesn’t want to be – and cannot be – a partner to a diplomatic settlement,” Liberman said. “There’s a reason that Abu Mazen entered into a joint government with Hamas.”
“Abu Mazen complements Hamas in that he is preoccupied with diplomatic terrorism and slanderous claims against Israel,” he said. “As long as Abu Mazen is chairman of the PA, he will lead to a continuation of the conflict. Abu Mazen has once again proven that he is not a man of peace, but rather a successor to Yasser Arafat in other ways.”
In response to Abbas’ threat to unilaterally seek UN Security Council approval for statehood, Likud MK Danny Danon urged the government to annex the Jewish settlements of Judea and Samaria.
“A unilateral step should be met with a unilateral step,” Danon said. “Every unilateral declaration by Abu Mazen needs to be answered by the application of sovereignty over the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.”