The meeting between Defense Minister Bnei Gantz and Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen tonight (Monday) is causing a great stir in Israel and the Arab world. "Does not represent the Palestinians, but only himself."
Hamas spokesman 'Abd al-Taif al-Qa'una said: "Abbas' meeting with the criminal Zionist war minister Gantz is a stab in the back of our people and its victims and a betrayal of the blood of the martyrs. Abbas continues the series of falls and concessions on national existence and beautifies the occupation."
Benny Ganz and Abu Mazen, GettyImages, Oren Ben Hakon
A senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zohari, also attacked Abu Mazen: "Mahmoud Abbas' meeting with the occupation army minister is dangerous and reflects the PA's contempt for Palestinian blood, and a step up in its security cooperation with the occupation."
As mentioned, the right-wing parties reacted with great anger and condemned the meeting of the two.
"Gantz met with a Holocaust denier, who pays salaries to terrorists and especially with a man who is suing him and the State of Israel in The Hague - Israeli society does not understand the potential damage of this event at the political level," said Religious Zionist chairman Bezalel Smutrich in an interview with Radio 103.
The chairman of Religious Zionism, MK @bezalelsm, launches an attack after the Gantz-Abu Mazen meeting: At the political level. "
@BenCaspit @YinonMagal
- 103FM (@ radio103fm) August 30, 2021
A member of his faction, MK Ben Gvir, said similar things in response to the meeting: "It is a shame that the defense minister of the State of Israel is going to meet with a terrorist who heads the Palestinian Authority, which funds terrorism, awards Jews to murderers and names squares after them."
In the left-wing parties, they welcomed the meeting.
Deputy Economy Minister Yair Golan said: "The Defense Minister's meeting with the head of the Palestinian Authority is an encouraging sign and another expression of the positive change that the new government brings with it. The complexity of the conflict must be resolved through dialogue - this is the right Zionist act."
The Defense Minister's meeting with the head of the Palestinian Authority is an encouraging sign and another expression of the positive change that the new government brings with it.
The complexity of the conflict needs to be resolved in discourse - this is the right Zionist act.
pic.twitter.com/H0KOWzzvMH
- Yair Golan - Yair Golan (@ YairGolan1) August 30, 2021
After a statement by a source close to Prime Minister Bennett said that "there was not and will not be a political process with the Palestinians," MK Musi Raz of Meretz said: "An outrageous announcement as to why there should be no political process? A member of his party, Regional Cooperation Minister Issawi Farij, tried to calm things down in an interview with 103fm radio, saying that "a Palestinian state will not be established in the next 6-5 years."
