Prime Minister Netanyahu will not offer any concessions to
the Palestinians during his scheduled meeting in Berlin later this week with US
Secretary of State John Kerry, a senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office
said Sunday night.
Rather, the official said, he will demand that the Palestinians stop the incitement that is fueling the terrorism.
Kerry confirmed Sunday that he is scheduled to meet Netanyahu later this week in Berlin, and then Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah II in the region. The meeting with Netanyahu is slated for Thursday, if the security situation allows the premier and some of his top ministers to travel to Berlin on Wednesday for an already once-postponed government-to-government German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
There are unconfirmed reports that Kerry’s meeting with Abbas will take place on Saturday in Amman.
Israel is not the problem at the Temple Mount, but rather the solution, Netanyahu said at Sunday morning’s cabinet meeting, rebuffing a French proposal to place international observers on the holy site.
“We are preserving the status quo,” he said. “We are the only ones doing that, and will continue to do this responsibly and seriously.”
He reiterated what he has been saying for weeks, that there has not been any change in the orders of prayer or the visiting rights on the Temple Mount. The only change in the status quo has been efforts organized by the Islamic Movement in Israel and other “outside forces” to bring explosives into the mosques on the site and “attack Jews from them,” he said.
This is the change in the status quo that has caused all the events there over the last year, he added.
Netanyahu said that Israel rejects the French proposal put forward at the UN Security Council, and pointed out that it did not mention Palestinian incitement or terrorism.
There is, however, a call in the proposal to “internationalize the holy sites.”
Netanyahu said that everyone has seen what happens to holy sites in the Middle East, “what happened in Palmyra [Syria], what happened in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere where Muslim extremists destroy each other’s mosques, to say nothing about Christian, Jewish and heritage sites.”
The prime minister said that Israel is acting in an aggressive and systematic manner against the wave of terrorism through the reinforcement of security forces, and taking both deterrent and punitive steps.
“Today we will begin taking steps against incitement, including against the Islamic Movement, which is the foremost inciter,” he said, adding that Israel will take action against that group’s source of funding.
Rather, the official said, he will demand that the Palestinians stop the incitement that is fueling the terrorism.
Kerry confirmed Sunday that he is scheduled to meet Netanyahu later this week in Berlin, and then Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah II in the region. The meeting with Netanyahu is slated for Thursday, if the security situation allows the premier and some of his top ministers to travel to Berlin on Wednesday for an already once-postponed government-to-government German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
There are unconfirmed reports that Kerry’s meeting with Abbas will take place on Saturday in Amman.
Israel is not the problem at the Temple Mount, but rather the solution, Netanyahu said at Sunday morning’s cabinet meeting, rebuffing a French proposal to place international observers on the holy site.
“We are preserving the status quo,” he said. “We are the only ones doing that, and will continue to do this responsibly and seriously.”
He reiterated what he has been saying for weeks, that there has not been any change in the orders of prayer or the visiting rights on the Temple Mount. The only change in the status quo has been efforts organized by the Islamic Movement in Israel and other “outside forces” to bring explosives into the mosques on the site and “attack Jews from them,” he said.
This is the change in the status quo that has caused all the events there over the last year, he added.
Netanyahu said that Israel rejects the French proposal put forward at the UN Security Council, and pointed out that it did not mention Palestinian incitement or terrorism.
There is, however, a call in the proposal to “internationalize the holy sites.”
Netanyahu said that everyone has seen what happens to holy sites in the Middle East, “what happened in Palmyra [Syria], what happened in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere where Muslim extremists destroy each other’s mosques, to say nothing about Christian, Jewish and heritage sites.”
The prime minister said that Israel is acting in an aggressive and systematic manner against the wave of terrorism through the reinforcement of security forces, and taking both deterrent and punitive steps.
“Today we will begin taking steps against incitement, including against the Islamic Movement, which is the foremost inciter,” he said, adding that Israel will take action against that group’s source of funding.
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