According to the local news paper, Israeli President Shimon Peres privately opposes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence that Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state, saying it obstructs peace talks.
The news paper also wrote, in conversations held by Peres in the past weeks with senior diplomatic and political figures, he explained that this insistence by Netanyahu was ‘unnecessary,’ as he put it, since it could derail the peace negotiations.
Netanyahu has amplified calls for Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, demand Palestinian leaders reject fearing this could preclude the right of return for Palestinian refugees who left or were driven into exile when the state of Israel was created in 1948.
Netanyahu said that, to have a genuine peace between us and the Palestinians there must be a Palestinian acceptance finally of a nation-state for the Jewish people,”
Palestinians say Netanyahu’s focus on the “Jewishness” of Israel is a deliberate ploy to sideline more pressing issues in peace talks that were kick-started by US Secretary of State John Kerry in the middle of last year, such as the contours of a future Palestinian state and the fate of Jerusalem, claimed as a capital by both sides.
According to the Palestinian leader Nabil Shaath, Today, you will see Mr. Kerry going back and forth, discussing nothing but two issues. The two issues have never been in our agenda: the Jewishness of the state and (security in) the Jordan (Valley).
Israeli President Shimon Peres Privately Opposes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Peace Demand
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