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Former Israeli minister says public brainwashed about Abbas

In an interview with Al-Monitor, former Labor Minister Ephraim Sneh rejects the claim that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is not a partner for peace, saying the Israeli public has undergone Goebbelsian-style brainwashing.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas listens to remarks about the Middle East peace talks at the State Department in Washington, September 2, 2010. REUTERS/Jim Young (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR2HU8I
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On April 22, the chairman of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas, spent over an hour and a half talking to senior Israeli journalists. They had been invited to the Muqata headquarters during one of the most crucial weeks of the peace talks to serve as a direct conduit for his messages to the Israeli public.

Correspondents who took part in the meeting said that the PA head went out of his way to convey openness and transparency. He answered all their questions at length, including the most difficult ones, and presented his terms for continued negotiations. He ended his talk with a direct appeal to the Israeli public, saying, ''We want peace, we’re interested in peace, but if you humiliate us, the situation might get out of hand … we’re a partner and we want to achieve a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders.” But this peaceful message was overridden by his threats to dismantle the PA, as extensively reported by the Israeli media.

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