Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources Yuval Steinitz is calling Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Mahmoud Abbas Israel’s “Number One enemy.”
Abbas warned during a Fatah Central Committee meeting in Ramallah on Wednesday after his re-election to the faction’s leadership for another five-year term, that recognition of the State of Israel would not be “eternal,” should it not be reciprocated by the Israelis.
The Fatah leader also heads the Palestinian Authority and is now in his 11th year of a four-year term. He stressed his confidence at the meeting that the entity will eventually gain independence and that the removal of settlements “requires patience.”
In an interview Thursday (Dec. 1) with Israel Radio, Steinitz argued that to withdraw his recognition of Israel, Mahmoud Abbas would have to first start by recognizing it. “Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) has never recognized the right of the State of Israel to exist, and continues to deny it,” Steinitz said. “He always posited that the Jews had no right to their own homeland state whether in Ramallah or Tel Aviv,” he said.
“Ideologically, Abu Mazen is the Number One enemy to the very existence of the State of Israel, even more so than [former PLO chairman Yasser] Arafat,” he said.
The remarks came on the heels of six anti-Israel resolutions adopted by the United Nations General Assembly this week on “Palestinian and Middle East issues.”
One resolution pertaining to Jerusalem and its holy sites was approved by a 149-7 vote with 8 abstentions and again erased the ancient Biblical Jewish bonds to the Temple Mount. It also said action by Israel, “the occupying Power, to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the Holy City of Jerusalem … [remains] illegal and therefore null and void and had no validity whatsoever.”
In response, Steinitz called the resolutions as “a sad joke for Israel and for the world.” He also claimed the specific condemnation of Israel, as compared to the horrific acts occurring currently in the Middle East, whether in Syria or Iraq, had “an anti-Semitic orientation.”
Israel Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon severely criticized President of the General Assembly John William Ashe for wearing a Palestinian Authority flag scarf during the November 29 UN General Assembly session held to mark the world body’s annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The event was held on the anniversary date of the General Assembly’s 1947 adoption of Resolution 181, the Partition Plan for Palestine.
“It is unfortunate that the @UN_PGA chose to wear the Palestinian flag at an event whose sole purpose was to slander Israel,” Dannon tweeted.
In his speech, he also displayed the headline than ran in The New York Times following the 1947 vote, posting it on the Twitter social networking site:
“The @nytimes from the day after the Partition Plan vote: ‘Assembly Votes Palestine Partition. Arabs Walk Out.’ This is the whole story.”
Content by Ilana Messika / TPS was used in this report.