Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared on Sunday that he had little faith in the planned French Middle East peace summit.
“This morning I met with the French Foreign Minister. I told him that the scandalous UNESCO decision, which was supported by France, that does not recognize the Jewish People’s ties – which are thousands of years old – to the Temple Mount, casts a shadow on the fairness of any forum that France tries to convene.”
The Prime Minister added that the French Foreign Minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, claimed that the decision was based on a misunderstanding, adding that he would personally see it was not repeated.
During his talk with Ayrault, Netanyahu emphasized that negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority must be direct – and free of outside interference.
“I told him that the only way to advance a true peace between us and the Palestinians is by means of direct negotiations between us and them, without preconditions,” said Netanyahu.
“Our experience with history shows that only this way did we achieve peace with Egypt and Jordan and that any other attempt only makes peace more remote and gives the Palestinians an escape hatch to avoid confronting the root of the conflict which is non-recognition of the State of Israel. They simply avoid negotiating with us as part of their desire to avoid resolving the root of the conflict, which is recognizing the national state of the Jewish People, i.e. the State of Israel.”
Netanyahu also spoke with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday night, calling upon the US to condemn an Iranian Holocaust cartoon contest and condemning Iran for “preparing another Holocaust”.
“Over the weekend Iran convened a special Holocaust-denial cartoon contest. We raise this here because it must be understood what our problem with Iran is. It is not just its policy of subversion and aggression in the region; it is the values on which it is based. It denies and belittles the Holocaust and it is also preparing another Holocaust. I think that every country in the world must stand up and fully condemn this. This is what I told US Secretary of State John Kerry last night in my conversation with him.”
