Saeb Erekat.

JNS.org – In a newly surfaced audio recording, Saeb Erekat—the top Palestinian negotiator in the collapsed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks—calls Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “filthy war criminal” and also harshly criticizes the leadership of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

“I don’t say shoot him. He isn’t worth the bullet … he’s ideologically corrupt, I’ve known him for 31 years,” Erekat said of Netanyahu, according to a Times of Israel translation of a recording posted on YouTube by the Awraq News Agency.

Erekat said the only way to extract concessions from Netanyahu is to pursue action against him in international courts.

“Why did Netanyahu engage in these random negotiations if not to build more settlements? … You, Abu Mazen (Abbas), have the ability to prevent Netanyahu from traveling anywhere in the world, except from Ben-Gurion airport to New York. He’s a despicable, filthy war criminal,” said Erekat.

The Palestinian negotiator said Abbas has lost his credibility in the Arab world.

“Quite honestly, the Arabs don’t believe you (Abbas),” Erekat said. “They either doubt you, or attack you, or are scared of you … He (Abbas) is 79 years old. How much longer will he live? All he must do is take a patriotic stand. He can do anything, but it seems like he wants to become like Bashar Assad or Saddam Hussein … this way of thinking is useless. There are cards in your hand—use them.”