Posted on 10/01/15
| News Source: Times of Israel
NEW YORK — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday lambasted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for failing to condemn the terror attack that earlier that day had killed an Israeli couple in front of four of their children, aged 4 months to 9 years.
“I didn’t hear any condemnation from the Palestinian Authority” on the murders of Naama and Eitam Henkin, he said. “Note that there was this horrible and pretty unique event of the murder of an Arab family in Kfar Duma,” he continued, referring to an event from July 31, during which three members of the Dawabsha family were killed.
The Dawabsha family home was firebombed by Jewish terrorists, killing Ali Dawabsha, 18 months old. His parents dies of their severe wounds separately, weeks apart. The only surviving member of the family is Ahmed, 5, who remains hospitalized in Israel.
The attack shook Israeli society and politicians from across the political spectrum condemned the attack, calling for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
“I, and the entire Israeli leadership, immediately condemned it forcefully,” Netanyahu told Israeli reporters during a briefing in his Manhattan hotel Thursday. “I went to the hospital. We gave any assistance possible. Now compare that to defeating silence, pardon the expression. It’s a deafening silence.”
The prime minister also took Abbas to task for what he described as the incitement against Israelis and spreading of lies about Israel’s alleged intentions to change the status quo on the Temple Mount. Netanyahu has repeatedly said that no such changes were in the offing.
The Temple Mount has been the site of violent clashes between Palestinian rioters and Israeli security forces over the past several weeks.
“It has been proven again that the wild Palestinian incitement leads to acts of terrorism and murder such as we have seen this evening,” he said.
Responding to a reporter’s question whether Jerusalem should continue viewing Abbas as a partner for peace, Netanyahu said that, “If he continues to incite and if he continues to refuse to enter negotiations, it’s evident that he removes himself” from the circle of possible partners for peace.
During his speech earlier Thursday at the United Nations, Netanyahu called on Abbas to return to the negotiating table, “because there’s always a point in making a last effort, or an additional effort,” Netanyahu explained. Yet he clearly placed the blame for the stalemate on Abbas.
“During my meeting today with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, I said things very straight-forward. I said this man [Abbas] runs away from negotiations. He’s unwilling to sit down and negotiate because during negotiations he’d be require to recognize the Jews’ right to a nation-state of their own, and also to give up on the right of return [for Palestinian refugees] and also to take care of security arrangements, which everybody understands that they are necessary in an any agreement. And for his he’s not ready, therefore he finds all kind of excuses,” Netanyahu said.
On Friday morning, Netanyahu is slated to meet with US Secretary of State John Kerry, with whom he is expected to discuss the possibility of a new round of peace talks.
The State Department condemned the terror attack Thursday, urging “all sides to maintain calm, avoid escalating tensions in the wake of this tragedy, and work together to bring the perpetrators to justice.”