While it was becoming apparent that the latest intifada was refusing to die down, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met face to face with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Nov. 30, after five long years. This rare meeting took place at the climate conference in Paris, which both leaders attended. They met by chance and exchanged a handshake, while camera flashes went off all around them.
When journalists later asked Netanyahu if anything would follow this handshake, Netanyahu was quick to put a damper on their enthusiasm. “It’s important for the world to see that we were ready to talk,” he said, but continued, “We have no illusions about Abbas.” Yet that was not enough for Netanyahu. He wanted to make it perfectly clear that he doesn’t consider Abbas to be a partner for peace. To emphasize this point, he told his listeners that when he met US President Barack Obama in the corridor at that conference, he said, “Abbas has to stop his incendiary rhetoric and all the lies he is spreading about our policies on the Temple Mount. President Obama then told me that he plans to talk to Abbas and tell him that he agrees with me that this must stop.”
Based on that description of events, it's clear that Netanyahu is unenthusiastic about contact with Abbas. He worries that any contacts of that sort could be used to attack him from within his right-wing government.
But a survey conducted Jan. 26-28 and released by the Israel Democracy Institute on Feb. 2 indicates that actually, most Israelis would love to see Netanyahu and Abbas meet. According to the survey, some 70% of the Israeli public would support such a meeting, according to the following breakdown: 100% of respondents who self-identify as voting for the left; 92% of respondents who place themselves in the political center and 46% of those who vote for the right. Returning to Netanyahu, this latter figure explains why he has consistently distanced himself from Abbas throughout his time in office, and all the more so now, when he heads a decidedly right-wing government during a brutal wave of terrorism.
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