underlying sentiment, regardless of what word he used, is the same. so, you know, i just for them not just to stand up and speak honestly, and you have people like tom cotton coming out, senator tom cotton coming out and essentially trying to give cover to the president for something that nobody is disputing the sentiment. i think this is a really it is a travesty. simone, go ahead. john, i ve known senator cotton for many years, for living in arkansas. i can say he has never been one to lie or stretch the truth for himself or anyone for that matter. and i think we also have to take into consideration the fact could be that some heard what the president said, and some maybe didn t, maybe durbin heard what the president said and there could be the truth that cotton and purdue didn t hear it. we have to take that into cnsideration. i think we ll all agree that the president does speak in very derogatory and demeaning language and uses terms that
abbas popularity has been waining in recent years. that s who he was talking to with the rhetoric he used. as for the response, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu gave that a short time ago, where he said, abbas brought out to the public the simple truth i ve been trying to get through to people for many long years. the source of the conflict between us and the palestinians is their continued refusal to recognize israel as a jewish state within any borders whatsoever. this was the speech that laid the ground work for this plo central council meeting. it set it off, even if abbas didn t paint a picture of where this is moving or what the plo s next step is, it was a statement about where the palestinians stand and they refuse to budge. not under pressure from the u.s., not under pressure from other arab states, understandably the saudis working with trump on a peace plan. abbas laid down where he is standing even at the expense of the relations with other countries there. john?
refusal to recognize a jewish state. israel s prime minister has called on president abbas to meet hundreds of times for direct peace talks. he even invited him to speak in the knesset. president abbas said no to recognizing israel as a jewish state and no to direct relations and no to condemning the hate speech that is a daily occurrence on palestinian media. instead of focusing on the actual barriers to peace, this has basically done a bait and switch where people think we have a problem with our satellite there. can we get david keyes back? he s back. so, mr. keyes, i think you got the last part of your statement out. to that, talking about israel. your education minister said absolutely no to a palestinian state. your justice minister called a palestinian state hamas stan and
opposing a palestinian state. how do you intend to pursue peace with that kind of a government? well, because in this government, even though there is a diversity of voices, the prime minister is called the prime minister for a reason. he supports two states for two peoples. and the vast majority of israelis earn for an end to this conflict. i think if the palestinians wanted a state, they could have had it a long time ago. every time they were offered a state as happened in 1947 and 1937, ten years before and 2000 and 2008. every time they were offered, they said no. and the reason is simple. because the conflict is not about the creation of a palestinian state. it s about the existence of a jewish state. and i can quote palestinian minister saying precisely that, as well. and i can tick down the list who said we will never accept two states for two peoples. to president abbas who said we will never accept a jewish state
these are the final status issues which need to be worked out between the parties. i can t negotiate right now live on cnn. that s for president abbas and prime minister netanyahu to sit down and work out all these difficult issues. you can t work out difficult issue physical the other party won t even sit down with you. ramallah is a few minutes away from here. i would much rather be there right now negotiating peace with a palestinian leader than talking to you, no offense. but the palestinian leadership has said no to literally hundreds of calls. this rejectism i understand that. they have said a lot of things. when the building did stop, it didn t bring them to the table. when israel took out every single settlement from gaza it didn t take them to the table. that is because that is not the issue. i hope we can find common ground in the near future. david keyes, we re out of time. thank you very much. i appreciate your time. thank you very much. coming up in our next hour