The Jerusalem Center has released a video of former Director General of the Foreign Ministry and former Ambassador Dore Gold explaining why the upcoming Paris conference is dangerous to Israel's future.
"Some seventy countries are expected to attend [the Paris conference]," Gold said. "It's not at all clear if there will be any Palestinian delegation attending - they've given mixed signals. But Israel has been very firm in declaring that it will not attend and that it objects to the whole idea of the conference..."
"Israel learned through many years of negotiations and diplomacy...that the only way we resolve our differences with our neighbors is by sitting face to face at the peace table. That's how we reached peace with Egypt in 1979...That is exactly how we reached peace with Jordan...That is what works. Direct negotiations.
"What is being planned in Paris first and foremost gets us away from those direct talks at the peace table into a very complex world of multilateral negotiations...That's not how we made peace in the past, and that's not how we'll make peace in the future..
"What could easily happen [without direct negotiations] is...they'll say they never actually decided to accept the finality of diplomacy. And that could easily happen..
"Paris is setting Israel up for an international discussion of its future, without real reconciliation being reached. And Moscow is setting up a very disturbing meeting between Fatah and Hamas that will put internationally recognized terrorist organizations into the mix," Gold concluded.
Israel has been very clear in declaring that it will negotiate directly with the Palestinian Authority, but until recently, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas refused to negotiate with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Abbas also insists his preconditions be met before peace talks can commence, while not promising anything in return.