Peres Calls Abbas ‘Best’ Palestinian Leader
President Shimon Peres said Monday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is the best Palestinian leader for Israel.
“I call on my friend Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who I respect and acknowledge as the best leader Israel will work with, to return to the negotiating table,” Peres said Monday at a Rosh Hashanah ceremony with foreign diplomats.
Peres pressed that peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians is possible. “Let’s decide the facts in the Middle East reality that is changing before our eyes,” he said. He also called on both sides to adhere to the timetable the Mideast Quartet presented for renewing negotiations and reaching a peace agreement.
“There is a clear majority in both nations for the principle of a two states for two peoples and now that the speeches are over, it is time for the real work on the ground,” Peres said. “We must translate the declarations to reality.”
While Peres named Abbas as the best Palestinian leader, Abbas on Sunday called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the most inflexible leader he had ever known, in an interview with the pan-Arab newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat.
For more, go to Haaretz.com
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.