The Obama Administration’s foreign policy in Israel looks grim, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell observed during her discussion with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It appears that John Kerry’s eight month long pursuit of peace has come to a screeching halt.
Israel on Thursday suspended U.S.-sponsored peace talks with the Palestinians in response to President Mahmoud Abbas's unexpected unity pact with the rival Islamist Hamas group.
"What has happened is a great reverse for peace because we had hoped that the Palestinian authority, President Abbas, would embrace the states- the Palestinian one and the Jewish one- but instead took a giant leap backward," Netanyahu said of the Palestinian unity pact. "I hope he changes his mind," he added.
Netanyahu issued a strong warning to those hoping for renewed talks between the Israelis and Palestinians while Hamas is still involved, telling Mitchell "We will not sit and negotiate with a Palestinian government that is backed by Hamas in which Hamas has effective share of power."
The Israeli prime minister expressed his disappointment with the Palestinian unity pact, saying "[They] have taken a giant leap backward and embraced the very people who call for the eradication of the Jewish state. That’s incompatible with peace. He can’t think he can have both. He made a terrible decision for peace and his own people…"