The only difference between Hamas head Khaled Mashaal and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is that the latter wraps his extremist ideology in pretty words, Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon accused Sunday.
Speaking to Voice of Israel (Kol Yisrael) radio, Yaalon said that Abbas has refused to recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people and is not prepared to declare an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict even if Israel were to give up all of its territory east of the 1949 armistice line. The government wants to negotiate with Abbas, Yaalon said, and even froze construction in Judea and Samaria for most of a year in an unsuccessful bid to lure him back to the negotiating table – but Abbas preferred to turn to the UN instead.