Abbas Cancels Peace Negotiations Due To Saudi Leaked Jerusalem Plan

Zionist Union MK Nachman Shai eulogized Abbas’s career but expressed optimism that the peace process could be restarted with his successor.

“As someone who believes in a two-state solution, I haven’t lost hope,” Shai said. “Someone will replace Abbas sooner or later. We have to look forward and see who will be the new leader, and he will be our partner.”

But Meretz MK Mossi Raz defended Abbas, saying that the PA leader still supports the two-state solution, continues security cooperation with Israel, and has even given up the drive to reclaim his boyhood home in Safed.

“I wish our side was ready for pre-1967 borders, evacuating settlements, and recognizing the suffering of the ‘other,’” Raz said. “Israeli politicians say the Oslo peace process is dead, so it should not be a big deal when Abbas says it, too.”

Former Peace Now secretary- general Yariv Oppenheimer said that if a peace process is not restarted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump are to blame, not Abbas.

“Our government doesn’t support a Palestinian state, so Abbas is still more moderate than our government,” Oppenheimer said. “Some of the things he said like his incorrect history of Zionism were hard for a pro-peace person to hear, and I wish they weren’t said, but some of what he said was understandable. He didn’t burn any bridges like dismantling the PA, he didn’t accept the demands in the PLO to stop recognizing Israel, and he still supports two states, so he is still our partner.”