Israel will not negotiate with a "Palestinian version of Al-Qaida", Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday.
"Declaring statehood in September is a dictate -- and you don’t achieve peace through dictates. It’s a very bad idea,” Netanyahu told Cameron during their talks in London.
Before beginning his meetings on Wednesday, Netanyahu told reporters: “What happened today in Cairo is a mortal blow to peace, and a great victory for terrorism," emphasizing that just two days ago Hamas condemned the killing of Osama bin Laden.
“When Abu Mazen (Abbas) embraces Hamas- an organization committed to our destruction –it is a tremendous setback for peace and an advance for terror,” Netanyahu said.
"If it walks, shoots and quacks like a terrorist organization, it is a terrorist organization….[Hamas] effectively has Al-Qaida among them. You can wrap it up and dress it in whatever you want.., but they are a terrorist organization.”
Netanyahu repeated this message over and again in closed meetings on Wednesday, before heading over to dinner with Cameron in Downing Street.
Speaking to interlocutors, Netanyahu said he will continue to be the marshal of truth and decency.
“It seems the PA and Hamas have found a warm quarter in Cairo - in the 'new Egypt' -- and they are now, together, moving away from peace, We are talking about a Palestinian government in which half the members call for destruction of Israel and fire rockets on our cities…That’s who these people are. They are absolutely unreconstructed.”
"The only way peace can be achieved,is through negotiations and concessions from both sides. And the real issue at hand,is not the question of a Palestinian State, but rather of a Jewish state".
“There is a belief here that this is a conflict about territory. But that’s not the case. It is a conflict about the Jewish state, the fact that the PA is ready to re-join forces with Hamas shows that they have not given up the ghost of getting rid of us.”
“The one concession we have asked from them -- which they still have not accepted -- is that they accept and recognize the fact of a Jewish state.”
“This is where I would lance the boil—What this union shows is that the PA is taking the Palestinian state, or the two state solution, not as a means to an end of the conflict but as a way to continue it."
“We asked Abu Mazen [Abbas] to stand up to these guys. Not only is he not doing that -- he is on the stage with them".
“This is the truth. I don’t care how many western diplomats say otherwise. The refusal of the Palestinians Arabs to accept our country is at the root of the conflict, I can only try to marshal truth and decency, in response to all the misconceptions and lies going on around, , I'm hopeful it is only a matter of time until the European leaders, wake up to reality.”
“Right now they [Hamas and PA] are having a division of opinion on who will sit on the podium. To Abbas I say - leave the podium and come back to path of peace. To Hamas I don’t say anything.”