News Briefs

Boycott stoppers

Israel has established a new inter-ministerial team to fight efforts to boycott the Jewish state and products manufactured beyond the Green Line, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced Monday.

The creation of the inter-ministerial team, which includes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and International, Intelligence, and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz, was declared in the wake of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s controversial comments over the weekend warning of boycotts and isolation if Israel does not reach a peace deal with the Palestinians.

“We are not disregarding the boycott, but we are also not going into the history,” Lieberman said, according to Israel Hayom.

No nod, no deal

Prime Minister Netanyahu criticized Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday for his refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Netanyahu’s statements came after Abbas told the New York Times that Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state was “out of the question.”

At a Likud-Beiteinu faction meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said, “[Abbas] knows that there will not be an agreement without recognition of the nation state of the Jewish people,” Israel Hayom reported.

Netanyahu said it would be “absurd” to expect Israel to recognize a nation state for the Palestinian people without reciprocal recognition of Israel as the nation state for the Jewish people.

“Let’s see if the same international actors who until now have put pressure on Israel will make clear to the Palestinian Authority what exactly will be the consequences for the Palestinians if there is no agreement,” Netanyahu said.