PM: I want to hear Abbas say he will accept a Jewish state

Netanyahu says PA's recognition of Israel as Jewish state is "basic requirement for peace"; Livni: Flotilla is an act against Israel's legitimacy.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu 311 (R) (photo credit: Avi Ohayon / GPO)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu 311 (R)
(photo credit: Avi Ohayon / GPO)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to recognize Israel as a Jewish state on Tuesday, saying “Just say the six words – ‘I will accept the Jewish state.”
In an address to an assembly of the Jewish Agency Board of Trustees, Netanyahu said, “I stood before my people, people of Israel and I said numerous times that I will accept a Palestinian state. Now President Abbas must stand before his people and he has to say these six words, ‘I will accept the Jewish state.’ I will repeat this over and over and over again because it is the attempt to fudge, it’s the attempt to fudge and evade and obscure this essential component of peace; the removal of this basic obstacle to peace that is required and this is what the international community must face up to,” he added.
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“Once [the Palestinian leadership] says it, we will move inexorably towards peace.”
Also speaking at the Jewish Agency assembly, opposition leader Tzipi Livni said the solution to preventing a situation in which “a Jewish state will cease to exist” is “to tell Hamas now, before they establish a Palestinian state, and to tell those who want to go back to the negotiating table, that we expect any new Palestinian government to be established in accordance with the Quartet’s terms, to renounce terrorism and to accept Israel’s right to exist.”
Commenting on the flotilla expected to set out for Gaza in the coming days, Livni said, “We’re witnessing today the process of delegitimization against Israel. We have to understand that this process is not just a problem of who loves us or not, but also a matter that harms Israel’s security and the IDF’s ability to act.
“When we look at processes like the flotilla to Gaza, this is an attempt to act against the legitimacy of Israel to defend itself, and I want to say clearly that I, as the opposition leader, will continue to defend Israel’s right to defend itself, the right of soldiers to operate and the right of Israel to continue to isolate Hamas and Gaza, she said. “In these matters, there should not be opposition in Israel. We are talking about our security and there will not be divisions over this matter.”