Despite the precipitous fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria over the weekend, which further weakens the negotiating power of the Palestinian terror group Hamas over the Gaza hostage deal, “the obstacle to ending of the war and the return of all the hostages remains [le Premier ministre Benjamin] Netanyahu,” Yaïr Golan, president of the left-wing Democrats party, resulting from the merger of the Avoda and Meretz parties, told the press on Monday.
Speaking ahead of his party’s weekly Knesset faction meeting, Golan insisted that “the key to building a regional alliance lies in Gaza” and that “without a clear commitment to end to the conflict, neither Saudi Arabia, nor the United Arab Emirates, nor Egypt, nor Jordan, nor Great Britain, nor Germany, nor France will agree to cooperate with us to stabilize and shape the Middle East.”
“Yesterday I went to the Emirates for a whirlwind visit, where I met the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He told me directly and unequivocally that there will be no regional partnership to rebuild the Gaza Strip without cooperation with the Palestinian Authority in Gaza,” he explained. Golan insisted “it is in Israel’s supreme interest to create an alternative to Hamas.”
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Israel “must abandon its policies of ‘conflict management,’ the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority, the occupation of Gaza and the annexation of the territories, and adopt a responsible policy of resolving the conflict through a regional agreement he continued, saying it was the only way to create a US-backed alliance with moderate Sunni states and end Iran’s nuclear program.
“The current government is incapable of achieving this and the prime minister is ‘busy saving his own skin, not saving the hostages,'” he said, likely referring to the ongoing corruption trial against Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as the latter’s dependence on the far-right allies of its coalition.
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