No talks with Hamas-backed PA: Bibi

Zionist Benjamin Netanyahu says Tel Aviv would not take part in talks with a Palestinian government that is backed by the resistance movement of Hamas.

“As long as I’m Prime Minister of Israel, we will not negotiate with a government that is backed by Hamas, an organization that is committed to our destruction,” Netanyahu said in an interview with an American TV channel on Sunday.

He also called on acting Palestinian Authority’s Chief Mahmoud Abbas to renounce Hamas in order for the so-called peace talks to get back on track.

Netanyahu asked Abbas to “tear up” his pact with Hamas if he wants to resume the US-sponsored talks with Israel.

Netanyahu made the comments four days after Hamas and the PA pledged to end differences and form a unity government.

Under the long-awaited deal, the rival Palestinian factions of Hamas and Fatah are to form the unity government within five weeks and hold national elections six months later.

The Israeli regime has reacted by canceling the so-called peace talks with the PA and threatening sanctions against it.

On Thursday, Netanyahu described the unity deal as a “blow to Israel” and said the pact is “killing” the talks between Tel Aviv and the PA.

Last Palestinian-Israeli talks broke down in September 2010, after Tel Aviv refused to freeze its settlement activities in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds (Jerusalem), and the besieged Gaza Strip and are demanding that Israel withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories.

The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.