Netanyahu Calls Settlement Expansion Trivial

Tuesday October 19, 2010 00:17 by Ane Irazabal - International Middle East Media Center

On Monday, during a Likud meeting in Tel Aviv, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that only a small percentage of settlements have added construction.

“The additions are trivial and do not affect a possible peace treaty with Palestinians,” he claimed.

Benjamin Netanyahu (photo from www.google.com)

Netanyahu also referred to an interview aired on Channel 1 news, on Sunday, in which Abbas said that he had already transferred four messages to Netanyahu via officials in which he said that he was willing to settle for a silent settlement freeze in order to continue talks. “I prefer to have a face to face conversation with Abbas,” he added.

"If the Palestinians want to find problems then we won't proceed. If they want to solve the problems, I think that there are other ways to get over the gaps and move forward," Netanyahu told the Likud members.

Refering to Israel's security, he claimed that the solutions have to be immediate and long lasting. “I don’t know if you know this, but we struggle to fly near Gaza because they have anti- aircraft missiles. Imagine if they had missiles which could hit planes at Ben Gurion,” Netanyahu said.

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