Israeli Right Wingers Slam Trump Peace Moves As ‘Cocktail Chatter’

West Bank View: Shuli Moalem-Refaeli addresses journalists at Neve Daniel scenic lookout. Image by Haaretz

By Naomi Zeveloff May 4, 2017

Israeli right-wingers lambasted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after his meeting with President Trump, deriding Abbas’s statements about making peace between Israelis and Palestinians as empty rhetoric.

Shuli Moalem-Refaeli of the Jewish Home party said there would be no two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians.

“Only the obsession remains,” she said, according to the Jerusalem Post. “Trump can’t achieve anything here beyond cocktail chatter with Israelis and Palestinians diplomats.”

“Abu Mazen talks about ‘peace’ but continues to finance murders and terrorists,” said Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel of the far right Jewish Home party, using the honorific name for Abbas.

Ariel was referring to a controversial payments program to give money to family members of convicted terrorists behind bars in Israel.

The payments system was discussed by critics of the Palestinian Authority in the lead up to the Abbas-Trump meeting, and Trump apparently told his Palestinian counterpart to “resolve” the funding in order to make a peace agreement.

“Abu Mazen goes to Washington while he continues to transfer money to the families of the terrorists,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely of the ruling Likud party, according to the Israeli news site Ynet. “It is clear to anyone with intelligence that Abu Mazen is not interested in peace.”

Hotovely added that she “rejected outright” Abbas’s’ “nonsense on ending the occupation, because Israel is not occupying its own country.”

Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected] or on Twitter @naomizeveloff

Naomi Zeveloff is the former Middle East correspondent of the Forward, primarily covering Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

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