Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called on Palestinian Authority leaders to resume talks with Israel and for Arab leaders to talk to Israel and to help the Israeli-Palestinian Authority talks along. In saying that Israel does not want war, he said the diplomatic process was one of the three major challenges facing the Jewish state, the other two being the Iranian nuclear threat and the economic situation.
The prime minister started by talking about "economic peace," stressing that it was not a substitute for comprehensive peace. Netanyahu said the crux of the matter was Arab refusal to recognize the Jewish presence in the area. Noting attacks on Israel before the Six Day War of 1967, he noted that Israeli land concessions only brought more terror.
Netanyahu was interrupted for applause by the 200 invited guests when he said Israel was the national home of the Jewish people and would remain so. He called on Palestinian Authority leaders to recognize this and say so, not only to the rest of the world, but to their own people. He added that the problem of Arabs who left Israel when the state was founded was possible.
(more to come)