Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said he would like to restart the peace negotiations with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), but only if there is an answer from the Palestinian side.
Speaking at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), Netanyahu blamed the PNA for the breakdown of negotiations and said that in spite of Israel's approach, peace is not "always reciprocated."
Peace talks were brought to a halt in September 2010 after Israel's resumption of settlement activities in the West Bank. Since then, there have only been a few unsuccessfual attempts to re-launch the negotiations. The last one was the exchange of letters between leaders of the two sides last month.
The letters detailed a list of demands to be addressed before the two sides could sit again at the negotiation table.
At the INSS conference, Netanyahu stressed that Israel "does not want to rule the Palestinians" and is not interested in having them "as citizens," therefore Israel's main interest is to achieve a two-state solution.
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