Israeli President Urges Abbas to Hold Peace Talks

Arab World

July 1st, 6:20am

Tel Aviv - Asharq Al-Awsat

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin speaks with members of the media after meeting with US President Joe Biden in the Oval Office June 28, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Win McNamee/Getty Images/AFP)

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to hold talks to end the bloody Palestinian-Israeli conflict that has started 120 years ago. “We must forget the past, once and forever. We were not doomed to live together between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. We were destined to live together. That is our only hope for ending this conflict,” Rivlin said on Tuesday, stressing that "the State of Israel is here to stay, in eternity." “Let us build trust between the peoples, let us return to talking about the future and let us aim for a brighter and better future for our peoples.” Rivlin’s remarks came during a meeting in New York with a delegation of ambassadors from around the world to the United Nations, including Israeli Ambassador to the US and to the UN Gilad Erdan. Speaking at the gathering, Moroccan Ambassador to the UN Omar Hilale said he sees the Middle East changing. “I do not deny the dangers and difficulties, but I am very optimistic.” The ambassador said that what happened a few months ago is nothing short of historic and that nobody expected that Israel would reach agreements with Arab states. “This is an opportunity for progress, to advance dialog, to ensure our security. We have no alternative to peace,” Hilale said. However, Israeli Ambassador to the United States Gilad Erdan took advantage of his speech to lash out at the Palestinian Authority in general and Abbas in particular. “Only today, Abbas made a shameful speech considering Israel a strange colonial plant in the region,” he said. The ambassador said that it is undeniable that there is a strong bias against Israel at the UN and that antisemitism has infected too many UN bodies. “The sheer number of anti-Israel resolutions in the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly, as well as the wasted discussions in the Security Council that should be focused on real threats to peace and security, like Iran, make this abundantly clear,” he noted. Erdan added that in 1947, “the UN’s 57 members voted in favor of establishing a Jewish State in the Land of Israel. Today, with 193 members, many of them allies, I am not sure that such a resolution would pass. This should worry us all.”

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3056646/israeli-president-urges-abbas-hold-peace-talks