Israel’s ultra-nationalist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman yesterday questioned whether Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas represents all Palestinians, given his lack of authority in the Gaza Strip.
“Our Palestinian partner Abu Mazen [Abbas] is problematic. Does he represent all of the Palestinian people? It is clear that he does not represent Gaza and that his legitimacy in the West Bank is in doubt,” Lieberman said.
“To sign an accord with Abu Mazen would be to sign a deal with the leader of Fatah,” the Palestinian president’s political party, he said. “That said, I hope there will be a meeting with Abu Mazen. It is important that there be political negotiations, and we are ready for that — as long as there are no preconditions.”
“We don’t have to buy an entry ticket for talks,” Lieberman said of the Palestinian demand that peace negotiations can only resume if there is a total freeze on Jewish settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were suspended a year ago in response to the Jewish state’s war on the Islamist Hamas movement ruling the Gaza Strip.
“National honor is an important value in the Middle East and the time for obsequious attitudes is over. We have no need to adopt false pretenses in a bid to please,” Lieberman said.
On Thursday, Abbas’ Fatah, in a statement ahead of the movement’s 45th anniversary, vowed to step up its struggle against the Israeli occupation with both demonstrations and diplomacy.
Fatah went on to say that it “would not spare any effort in restoring Palestinian national unity and returning the Gaza Strip from the hands of those who have taken it hostage,” referring to its Hamas rivals.
The two main Palestinian movements have been divided into geographically separated hostile camps since the Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007.
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