MK Zehava Galon
MK Zehava GalonFlash 90

MK Zehava Galon, head of the far-left Meretz party, warmly welcomed Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's demands on Israel to freeze construction in Judea and Samaria for three months as a condition to extend talks on Tuesday.

Galon called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to accept "Abbas's outline" to renew the peace talks beyond their April 29 deadline.

"The prime minister should adopt the outline presented by the PA chairman," declared Galon. "I call on Netanyahu to stop the spin game, to stop blaming the Palestinians for national failures."

"Abbas's outline," presented before Israeli journalists at his Ramallah office on Tuesday, was not merely a demand that Israel make a one-sided concession in order for talks to continue. It included a threat that if Israel did not submit, he would dismantle the PA.

"If the peace talks end and the doors are closed, the state of Israel will get the general responsibility for maintaining the financial situation of the Palestinians from all perspectives - health, education, etc.," claimed Abbas.

Not everyone was so impressed by the "outline"

The threats did not impress everyone as much as they did Galon evidently; Economics Minister Naftali Bennett noted that this was the seventh time Abbas had threatened to disband the PA.

Bennett further opined that Abbas is demanding Israel to do what he wants, and if it doesn't "then he's going to commit suicide. Well, he's got to improve the incentive, something's wrong there."

Deputy Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud) similarly criticized Abbas's demands, saying "Abbas is (former PA Chairman Yasser) Arafat in disguise."

"The Palestinian leadership under Abbas just changed its tone and not its essence," he argued. "Under the honey-coated words and diplomacy is hiding an extremist leadership which is not interested in peace or an agreement, but rather in endless extortion of terrorist releases, concessions and withdrawals by Israel - just as a condition to have peace talks."