Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Monday that Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas was responsible for much of the tension between Israel and the PA. “If there is one stumbling block that must be removed in order for negotiations to take place, it is Abbas. If he is threatening to resign and pass the job onto someone else, let him; that is not a threat, but a blessing, and we wish he would do it finally. Anyone would be better than him.”

Lieberman added that Abbas was practicing “a personal agenda. He only cares about his place in history,” Lieberman said, adding that “he sees Qaddafi, former Tunisian leader Ben-Ali, and Mubarak, and he is thinking of his own future. It's natural, but it does not help to reach a peace deal.”