Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN host Candy Crowley Sunday Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas's condemnation of the Holocaust is a sign he is in damage control mode following his pact with Hamas.
Netanyahu said Abbas's comments were merely meant to "placate" western opinion in the wake of the Palestinian leader's decision to ally with a terror organization that denies the Holocaust:
CANDY CROWLEY: I want to start with the fact that Israel is involved in this annual commemoration this day of the Holocaust. In advance of that, Palestinian President Abbas issued a statement calling the Holocaust, and I quote here, the most heinous crime in the modern era. He expressed sympathies for the victims of the Holocaust. What do you make of that?
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Well, I try to reconcile that with the fact that he embraced just a few days ago the Hamas terrorist organization that denies the Holocaust and openly calls for a new extermination of the 6 million Jews in Israel. So President Abbas can't have it both ways. He can't say the Holocaust was terrible, but at the same time embrace those who deny the Holocaust and seek to perpetrate another destruction of the Jewish people. I think probably what he's trying to do is damage control. I think what President Abbas is trying to do is placate western public opinion that understands that he delivered a terrible blow to the peace process by embracing these Hamas terrorists. I think he's trying to wiggle his way out of it.