Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategic Affairs, Moshe Ya’alon, downplayed on Wednesday the meeting in Jordan between Israeli representative Yitzhak Molcho and Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat.
Speaking at a meeting of Professors for a Strong Israel at the Jabotinsky Institute in Tel Aviv, Ya’alon said, “Do not count on what happened this week in Jordan. There’s a voluntary failure (by the PA) to reach an agreement. There is no change that we’ll get a commitment from [PA Chairman] Abbas to end of the conflict and to an end to all preconditions.”
Ya’alon added, “Abbas is weak. I take responsibility for getting into his consciousness that terrorism does not pay. Any further Israeli withdrawals will only strengthen the Arab hopes of destroying Israel.”
He said that there is “a holy alliance between the Islamists and Jihadists and the Arabs, including Israeli Arabs.”
Ya’alon’s remarks came a day after Molcho and Erekat met in Amman, the first meeting between Israeli and PA representatives in over a year.
It was later reported that the meeting was positive and that the two are scheduled to meet in Jordan again next week.
While PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas expressed hope the meeting would jump-start the moribund peace process, on Monday he said that “all options are on the table” if Israel didn’t capitulate in Amman.
Israel previously froze construction in Judea and Samaria for ten months to meet Abbas’ demands for restarting talks, only to have him add more preconditions as a basis for peace talks and the release of all terrorists from Israel's prisons.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said he is willing to restart negotiations without preconditions from either side, in accordance with a Quartet plan calling for the resumption of talks with decisions on final status issues by December 31, 2012.
In his remarks on Wednesday, Ya’alon also slammed Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his policies and for his recent verbal attacks on Israel.
“Erdogan wants to establish an Islamic republic in Turkey,” he said. “Look at what the Turks do to Christians in Turkey. The only place where Christians enjoy freedom of worship is in Israel, and yet we are accused of being an apartheid state.”