As Diplomats Powwow in Paris, PM Pans ‘Pointless’ Peace Parley

The Fellowship  |  January 15, 2017

Bibi looking off in the distance with several Israeli flags behind him.
As Diplomats Powwow in Paris

Representatives from more than 70 nations – Israel and the Palestinians not among them – have convened today in Paris in an attempt to restart the peace process. However, reports The Times of Israel’s Tamar Pileggi, PM Netanyahu says that the framework being pushed at the summit is inherently anti-Israel:

As a multinational conference to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts convened in Paris on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again dismissed the French initiative, calling it a “pointless” endeavor that was inherently anti-Israel.

“The conference that is convening today in Paris is a pointless conference,” he told ministers at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.

“It was coordinated by the French and the Palestinians and aims to force conditions on Israel that conflict with our national interests,” the prime minister said.

France is hosting more than 70 countries at the Sunday summit aimed at reviving the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The conference is expected to condemn Israeli settlement building and urge both sides to embrace a two-state solution to the conflict.

Netanyahu has previously claimed the talks were “rigged” against the Jewish state, insisting that direct bilateral talks between Jerusalem and Ramallah was the only way to negotiate a peace agreement.

At the Sunday cabinet meeting, Netanyahu reiterated his position that the Paris-sponsored initiative makes the prospect of peace more as it “hardens Palestinians conditions and keeps them from direct negotiations.”