Yaalon Sees No Peace With Palestinians in His Lifetime

HERZLIYA (Reuters) —

Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Tuesday he did not believe a stable peace agreement could be reached with the Palestinians in his lifetime — one of the bleakest assessments from a top-level cabinet member since talks collapsed last year.

Yaalon, one of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s closest allies, accused the Palestinians of having “slammed the door” on efforts to keep discussions going, and said they had rejected peace-for-land deals for at least 15 years.

“As for the possibility of reaching an agreement … there is someone who says he doesn’t see one during his term,” Yaalon said, referring to remarks U.S. President Barack Obama made in an interview broadcast in Israel last week.

“I don’t see a stable agreement during my lifetime, and I intend to live a bit longer,” Yaalon told the Herzliya Conference, held annually near Tel Aviv.

Palestine Liberation Organization official Wasel Abu Youssef told Reuters that past and present Israeli governments had “closed the political horizon” by demanding to retain major Jewish population blocs in Yehudah and Shomron and rejecting a right of return for Palestinian refugees.

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