Netanyahu rejects French initiative

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu rejected a multilateral French “peace initiative” as he met his French counterpart on Monday, offering instead to hold direct talks with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Paris. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said he would speak to President Francois Hollande about Netanyahus proposal.Direct negotiations with the Palestinian Authority are “the only way to proceed to peace,” Netanyahu said. He offered “a different French initiative” of face-to-face talks with Abbas in Paris.Despite Netanyahus rejection of the French initiative, the Israeli premier began by thanking Valls for his “commitment to Franco-Israeli relations” and “stalwart position against anti-Semitism and that of Francois Hollande.”Netanyahu also thanked Valls for his recent statement acknowledging that Frances support for a UNESCO vote which denied the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount was a mistake.”I have to be honest: I wrote a letter to Francois Hollande and expressed my shock that France had voted for a decision denying the Jewish peoples link to the Temple Mount, which spans thousands of years,” Netanyahu related. “And the reason that this vote was so troubling for us is that it implies that the Jewish people have no right to be here. And I think that remains the core of the conflict, the refusal to recognize the right of the Jewish people to have a nation-state in their ancestral homeland.”I hope you encourage other nations that voted for this outrageous resolution to follow your lead and admit it was an error. And of course, the most important thing is that it doesnt happen again.”Moving on to the French peace initiative, Netanyahu stated: “though we have some disagreements on the best way to achieve peace, I deeply appreciate your commitment to pursue it.

 

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