JERUSALEM (WJC)–Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon has said that peace talks with the Palestinians were not likely to resume in the coming weeks.
“Instead of moving toward negotiations, the Palestinians just attack Israel in the world,” Ayalon said at a gathering of the Israel Council for Foreign Relations in Jerusalem, which is sponsored by the World Jewish Congress, adding: “In view of the Palestinians’ latest declarations, I don’t think the talks will begin before February, if not later.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s “rhetoric after his recent visit to Cairo is not encouraging… I do not see any movement on the political track until at least February and maybe even beyond that. The Palestinians are looking for imposed solutions, this will not happen,” Ayalon said.
“We are also against artificial deadlines, history has shown us that they are doomed to failure. We need patience and a Palestinian leadership that is willing to make tough decisions of the sort that I do not see they are willing or able to make.”
Read the full speech and Minister Ayalon’s answers to questions from the floor here.
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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress