Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely spoke on Tuesday in a festive Knesset gathering to mark the 40th anniversary of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's visit to Israel, which led to the Camp David peace treaty between the two countries.
Referring to Sadat and Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who signed the treaty, Hotovely said, "The peace between Israel and the Palestinians is not dependent on finding the Palestinian Sadat or the new Israeli Begin, because there has always been and always will be an Israeli Begin because we seek peace." She continued, "The Palestinian leadership is not ready for peace because it is unwilling to give up the distorted idea of the right of return of millions of refugees who are fifth generation and are not defined as refugees under international law. The idea of return is actually the destruction of the State of Israel as the state of the Jews."