As the Palestinian leadership is gaining momentum among the international community in its intention to declare an independent state at the United Nations, several Israeli leaders started calling for isolating President Mahmoud Abbas and for redeploying the Israeli forces in Palestinian areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority.Israeli Information Minister, Yisrael Katz, called on the government to reoccupy the West Bank should the P.A go ahead and unilaterally declare a state.
Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported that Katz, a close associate to Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated during a tour in Itamar, the illegal settlement south of Nablus, that Israel must act on fully controlling all Palestinian cities, villages and refugees camps in the occupied West Bank.
Commenting on the Palestinian unity agreement signed recently in Cairo, Katz said that “the presence of Hamas in the Palestinian government will grant proxy to Iranian existence and influence in the West Bank”, and claimed that “the Iranian influence through Hamas will destabilize Jordan, and will lead to the removal of its king, Abdullah”.
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister, Moshe Yaalon, claimed that Hamas signed the unity deal with Fateh because the Hamas leadership realized that their movement is in a weak position, especially after Israel installed the Iron Dome that intercepts homemade shells fired from Gaza into adjacent Israeli areas.
Yaalon said that Israel must not delude itself regarding the real intentions of Hamas, adding that the movement “does not hide its will to destroy Israel”.
He further stated that the Palestinian leadership, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, also believes in terror, and that “since the Zionist movement was established, there has never been a signal Palestinian leader who believed that the Jewish people have the right to their own state”.
“Should the UN approve the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian State, this state will be a failed entity”, Yaalon stated, “Abbas can never survive with the support of the Israel and its Army”.
Furthermore, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, Danni Ayalon, said that Europe must halt its financial support to the Palestinian Authority.
Ayalon said that “the Hamas movement is a terrorist group that is a significant part of the P.A”, therefore, he added, “the P.A must be isolated”. His statements came during a meeting with his European counterparts, In Oslo on Saturday at night.
He also called on the European countries to refrain from recognizing the Palestinian State at the United Nations, and added that such a stance could push the Palestinians to retract their plan despite the support expressed by several countries.
On Friday, Shaul Mofaz, one of the senior leaders of the Kadima Party in Israel, slammed the rushing statements of Netanyahu and several Israeli ministers and officials who quickly denounced the Palestinian unity deal, and called for boycotting the P.A.
Mofaz, who heads the Defense and External Relations Committee at the Knesset, said that “Netanyahu claimed that this deal will stop the Train of peace, but what peace, what train or process is he talking about?!”
He added that the peace process collapsed more than seven months ago, and that “Israel wasted a lot of time, and cannot just wait for the perfect partner to sign a peace agreement with”.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu said that the unity agreement is a “sharp blow to peace and a big victory to terrorism”.
Hamas and Fateh movements, along with the rest of the Palestinian factions signed the unity deal on Wednesday April 27, in Cairo. The deal calls for forming a government run by individual figures and tasked with preparing for Legislative and Presidential elections that would be held in less than a year.
