Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that the Palestinian Authority needs to choose between peace with Hamas and peace with Israel, addressing the Knesset plenum on Tuesday.
"How can you talk to us about peace when you're talking about peace with Hamas," the prime minister asked. "You can choose [to make] peace with Israel or you can choose peace with Hamas."
RELATED:Hamas split over Abbas offer to visit Gaza for unity talks'World powers still mishandling Iran’s nuclear program'Netanyahu also continued his recent criticism of the Palestinian Authority's incitement against Israel and honoring of terrorists.
Addressing the anti-government violence and war taking place in Libya,
Netanyahu repudiated the notion that the Arab revolutions began in
Tunisia early this year. He said that the revolutionary wave began in
Tehran one-and-a-half years ago.
Seemingly speaking to western powers who have accused Libyan leader
Muammar Gaddafi of war crimes and are now taking military action against
his regime, the prime minister said that similar measures should be
taken against Iran's leadership.
Netanyahu also addressed the criticism he has received for approving
several hundred housing units in the West Bank immediately following the
terror attack in Itamar. He said the building permits were not
punishment for the murders, but were Zionism's answer to them. "There
has been a great deal of building that was done as an answer to killing"
in the past, he said."
He listed several cities, moshavim and kibbutzim that were established
after similar massacres of Jews in the state's early years. One example
he presented was Kiryat Shmona, which was named after the eight people
killed in the battle of Tel Hai.
"Terror will not determine the map of the settlements," Netanyahu said.
The Palestinians "want to remove us from every place [in Israel],"
adding that the decision to respond to the murders with building was not
done instead of finding the murderers, but in addition to it.
Addressing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' condemnation of the
Itamar murders on Israel Radio, Netanyahu reiterated his previous demand
that Abbas "needs to say those things to the Palestinian media, and to
say them there every time that [an attack] happens."
Additionally, he criticized Abbas for "flying all over the world," but
not being willing to drive the ten minutes to Jerusalem and hold peace
talks.
Responding to heckling from MK Ahmed Tibi who asked Netanyahu if he was ready to condemn the
deaths of several children in the Gaza Strip only hours earlier,
Netanyahu distinguished between accidental deaths of innocent civilians
during a legitimate military operation and the type of murder that took
place in Itamar.