Pictured Above: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Credit: Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO.

(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that the Jewish state’s relations with Arab countries are better than ever.

The prime minister, speaking at an event hosted by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, noted that the current shift in Arab sentiment towards Israel is more profound than the improved relations that followed the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 1994 Israeli peace treaty with Jordan, Israel’s Channel 2 reported.

“What’s happening now with the Arab bloc states has never before happened in our history—even when we signed agreements,” said Netanyahu. “What we have now is greater than anything else during any other period in Israel’s history.”

Netanyahu reportedly pointed out that despite the positive trend, many of Israel’s Arab neighbors have yet to engage in direct relations with the Jewish state. Further, the prime minister chided the Palestinians for not following the regional trend of rapprochement with Israel.

“Unfortunately, the Palestinians still haven’t changed their terms for a peace agreement, which are totally unacceptable for a large part of the public,” he said.

In May, Arab states offered normalized ties with Israel in exchange for concessions to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians. Gulf states expressed the willingness to set up telecommunication lines between the Jewish state and Arab nations, to allow Israeli companies to do business with Arab countries, and to permit Israeli planes to fly over Arab airspace.

Sephardic News

http://sephardic.org/

editor@sephardic.org