Jean-Marc Ayrault. Photo: Wikipedia.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault in Jerusalem Sunday that the only way to proceed toward peace between Israel and Palestine was through direct negotiations without any preconditions. Netanyahu rejected the French attempts at resuming peace talks, calling them an “escape hatch” that will avoid recognizing Israel as the “nation state of the Jewish people.”

Speaking during a weekly meeting of his cabinet ministers, Netanyahu said he told Ayrault that Israel found “it difficult to treat France’s peace effort as unbiased in light of Paris’ support of the Unesco Temple Mount resolution,” adopted last month, which went against Israel, according to a Haaretz report.

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