The United States is following a self-defeating policy in talking to the Palestine Liberation Organization while trying to convince Palestinians to accept Israel’s proposal for elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned Friday.
“We don’t think you encourage Palestinian Arabs in the territories to participate in the elections and at the same time engage the very force, the PLO, that is opposed to this very idea,” he said.
The reason Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip do not step forward to discuss the proposed elections, which would lead to peace talks with Israel, is the “fear of being gunned down” by the PLO, Netanyahu said at a news conference with reporters from the Jewish media.
Netanyahu on Friday ended a whirlwind of meetings with members of Congress and the Bush administration.
At the State Department, he held separate talks with Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger; Robert Kimmett, undersecretary of state for political affairs; and John Kelly, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs.
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