Mahmoud Abbas said he would put any Israeli-Palestinian peace deal to a referendum, circumventing the Hamas government. The Palestinian Authority president, who has been struggling to restart peacemaking since the Islamic terrorist group took power in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, pitched the plebiscite idea in an Israeli newspaper interview Thursday. “It is my intention to bring the results of negotiations, if and when they are completed, to the Palestinian people in the form of a referendum,” Abbas told Ma’ariv. “The Palestinian people will decide, and I am certain that there is an overwhelming majority among the Palestinian people for peace, and an overwhelming majority in favor of an accord with Israel.” Israel shelved peace talks after Hamas, which seeks its destruction, crushed Abbas’ long-dominant Fatah faction in P.A. elections last January.
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