If Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas agrees to sit down for direct negotiations, Israel and the PA could have a peace agreement within the year, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the Council for Foreign Relations. “If it's up to me, we'll have an agreement,” he stated.
Previous peace efforts ran aground when attempting to bring agreement on select issues instead of reaching for a package deal, Netanyahu said. What Israel and the PA need is a peace treaty “that gives a sufficient feeling of hope and comfort to both peoples, and that they can actually see the totality,” he said. “Going at it piecemeal, piece by piece, is just to have a thousand cuts without seeing where this thing leads,” he added.
When asked if Abbas is a strong enough leader to make peace, and if he is ready to compromise where necessary, Netanyahu responded, “I can't speak for him, but I won't do what others do to me, and what some of my colleagues do to President Abbas – I won't rule out the possibility of leadership.”
"I think President Abbas can prove to be an important Palestinian leader,” he later said.
"I think President Abbas can prove to be an important Palestinian leader,” he later said.
