BREAKING NEWS

Hotovely: Paris summit will only drive Israel and the Palestinians further apart

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely on Wednesday said that Israel will not be coerced into peace negotiations by "external pressure," aiming her remarks at the upcoming Paris peace summit expected to be held later this week.
"The Paris summit is like a wedding without a bride and groom," Hotovely said. "The parties (Israel and the Palestinians) will only achieve peace through direct negotiations and not by external pressure."
"The Paris conference does not bring us closer towards peace and only distances it us away from us," she added.
Hotovely continued by stating that Palestinian "cultural" hatred and terror needed to be addressed if a viable peace solution were to be implemented, which would address Israel's most basic security concerns.
"Palestinian culture is based on terror and we see it in the textbooks of the younger generation. If the international community wants to promote peace, it first and foremost needs to send a clear message that education promoting hatred and terror is the biggest obstacle to peace," the deputy minister added.
The so-called Paris summit will be held on January 15 and is designed to address the Middle East peace process, with over 70 nations participating in the meeting.
Neither Israel nor the Palestinians are scheduled to attend.