Netanyahu demands full end to conflict
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
said that when he attends the next round of direct peace negotiations
with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the Egyptian resort of Sharm
el-Sheikh on Tuesday, he will demand that the agreement they are
working toward mark a full end to the conflict.
Abbas "needs to recognize the principle that if
we reach a settlement on borders then Israel will demand that it end
the conflict, and the Palestinians recognize the Jewish state," an Israeli official told the Ynet news portal. "The
prime minister will not agree to a principle that allows the
Palestinians to establish a state and then continue the argument over
which territory belongs to whom."
In that vein, Netanyahu on Sunday
reiterated his demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as "the
Jewish state," and that after the signing of a peace deal.
"We both live on the same small piece of land but as soon
as we suggest a two state solution for two nations, a Jewish one and a
Palestinian one, unfortunately I do not hear from the other side the
sentence 'two states for two nations.' I hear two states, but I don't
hear two nations," Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting.
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