​(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
 
Following is an excerpt from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks this evening (Wednesday, 1 June 2016), in Safed, at the MD degree award ceremony at the Bar-Ilan University Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee http://medicine.biu.ac.il/en:
 
"We are defending the country. We are defending its borders on the Golan Heights, opposite Gaza and in the south.
 
We have not stopped looking for paths to peace – including with the assistance of important developments in the region.
 
The way to peace does not go through international conferences that seek to impose agreements, make the Palestinians' demands more extreme and thereby make peace more remote.
 
The way to peace is via direct negotiations without preconditions between the sides. This is how peace was achieved in the past with Egypt and Jordan and this is what needs to be with the Palestinians. If the nations meeting in Paris this week really want to advance peace they should join me in calling on Abu Mazen to come to direct negotiations of this kind. This is the way to peace – there is no other."