Q: I was wondering whether Israel would be open to any diplomatic interventions, including a possible meeting between the Prime Minister and President Abbas, and indeed whether any foreign power such as the US have intervened on behalf of this cause.

PM Netanyahu: I call for this repeatedly, including in my recent speech in the UN. I’m perfectly open to it now. I’ve been talking to John Kerry and other leaders about such a meeting. I think it’s potentially useful, because it might stop the wave of incitement and the false allegations against Israel. So, I’d be open to meetings with Arab leaders and the Palestinian leadership in order to stop this incitement and set the record straight.

Q: There have been reports that some of the people who are upset with what happened in Dura, the arson in Dura, and I’m wondering wouldn’t it be better for the Government to make closure on this and to arrest people if they need to be arrested and charged? The second part of this question is, if they are… if the people who are guilty of the crime are not the three boys who are in jail now, why are they in jail?

PM Netanyahu: We are making every effort to find the people and to get the evidence to put them on trial. Does anyone in his right mind think that Israel would let these killers free? I condemned that immediately. I went to the hospital. I’ve yet to hear a condemnation from Abu Mazen, President Abbas, for the murder of these innocent Israelis. Not one word of condemnation. I didn’t hesitate for a minute. I condemned it. I went to the hospital to visit that young boy. And we’re taking care of him.

There’s an asymmetry here: Israel will not tolerate terrorism, from anyone - Jews or Arabs. It doesn’t make any difference for us. But in point of fact, there is a difference because we take an active policy, if we find the murderers and if we have the proof, you’ll hear about it immediately, believe me. You don’t need to press me, because I’m doing everything in my power to press our security forces on something that is not easy, it’s very hard. Sometimes it’s hard for us to apprehend Palestinian terrorist. Sometimes it’s hard, as in this single case, to find the Jewish terrorists. But we will. I have no doubt about that.

I think that the idea that this is justification for murder… What would you say if we said, if Jews are now murdered, as they are, and Israelis unleash a wave of contrary stabbings and attacks, would I condone it? Would I even raise it? I wouldn’t. I would say this is outrageous. Nothing justifies the systematic and deliberate slaughter of the innocent, the attempt to menace or maim or murder innocent people. Nothing justifies it. I don’t justify it. It’s time that President Abbas stops not only justifying it, but also calling for it. He says he wants to see more blood spilled in Jerusalem. And it’s time for the international community and fair-minded people to make that distinction. Stop justifying murder, and stop calling for murder.

Q: Mr. Prime Minister, you said you’re open to international intervention. We understand Secretary of State John Kerry will come here. He’s likely to say that, Mr. Prime Minister, at some point you should go back to the negotiating table. What will you say to him? And if you don’t believe negotiations are the way forward, what is the way out?

PM Netanyahu: He’s going to call on me for resuming negotiations? I’ve been calling… Are we living in the same planet? I’ve been calling day in, day out, in every forum, in the United Nations, in the US Congress, in Israel, in Jerusalem, In Tel Aviv. I haven’t done so in Nepal, because I haven’t visited it. I’ve called on President Abbas to resume unconditional negotiations immediately. Right now, as we speak, we can meet. I have no problem with that. I think we should stop immediately this wave of incitement against Israel and these attacks, murderous attacks against Jews.

The point of my statement is simple: I’m willing to meet him, he’s not willing to meet me. And you ask me about the resumption of negotiations? Come on. Get with the program. These people don’t want negotiations, and they’re inciting for violence. Direct your questions to them. And by the way, I’m not talking about international intervention. I’m talking about a suggestion that was raised, that John Kerry and I and King Abdallah and others would meet. I have no problem with that. We did that a year ago. It was actually fruitful. It could happen again. Why not?

Q: That’s what you’re calling for?

PM Netanyahu: It’s one possibility. That is fine with me. I’m willing to do it. But I think President Abbas has to stop this incitement. You just saw examples of him lying, barefaced lies. “An innocent child executed by Israelis.” No. He’s not innocent and he wasn’t executed. He tried to murder innocent people, almost succeeded. That’s a lie. You should direct your questions to him. You can’t give him a pass. In fact, the international community has been giving Abu Mazen a pass, all these years, and all these months, and all these weeks, and all these days. And when you give somebody a pass when they’re inciting violence, they continue to incite violence. And guess what? That violence has picked up, by Palestinian youngsters, and they go out and murder Jews. And they murder peace, of course.

I'd like to puncture some of the things that I heard. This wave of attacks is not the result of lack of political horizon. We've been suffering terror attacks for the last 95 years. 1920, 1921, 1936 to 1939, the fedayeen attacks, the Intifada attacks, they were actually at their height during the beginning of the Oslo peace process. And people said, well this is because these are enemies of peace, so the result, the explanation for the terrorist waves that we had then was the advance of peace.

Now they say: you have terrorist attacks because there is no peace. Neither is true. They're attacking us not because they want peace or don’t want peace. It’s because they don’t want us here. If they're frustrated, I assure you that frustration will continue because we're going to continue to be here.

As far as settlements are concerned - this is not a result of a massive wave of settlements because there's not been a massive wave of settlements. And second, we have something else, and the facts count. It is the very killers themselves who explain why they're doing what they're doing. They leave behind Facebook pages in which they cite and repeat Palestinian incitement about the al-Aqsa Mosque. All the lies that are said about us trying to bring down the mosque or change the status quo, they cite that as the reason for their activity. And you can’t fit a false template on reality. This is what is driving this current wave.

I’m sorry. The old models don’t apply. There’s a Palestinian attempt to inflame violence based on the false allegations that we are changing the Temple Mount, now on the false allegations that we’re executing innocent civilians. It doesn’t wash. And I expect our friends around the world to look at these facts, recognize them for what they are and I think, to condemn these Palestinian attacks and to demand from Abu Mazen to stop the incitement and to restore calm.

Q: The US State Department has been somewhat concerned about excessive use of force used by some Israeli security forces. Are you worried both about losing.. You talk about false symmetry, but are you worried about losing the support of some of your allies? And also, losing control of this city, which you seem on the point of dividing.

PM Netanyahu: No. We’re not going to divide the city any more than people who are putting a curfew in neighborhoods and towns in Europe or in the United States on occasion are dividing those cities. So, don’t get swept away, carried away. Don’t build your hopes high. That’s the first point.

The second point is, look, we expect every fair-minded observer to see that Israel is using exactly the kind of legitimate, and the amount of legitimate force that any one of those governments and those municipalities and those police forces would use if they had people wielding knives, meat cleavers, axes, trying to kill people on their streets.

What do you think would happen in New York if you saw people rushing into crowds trying to murder people? What do you think they would do? Do you think they would do anything different from what we’re doing? They might, actually, but certainly not less. Okay? And what would happen in Washington? And what would happen in London? Or what would happen in Paris or Rome or Moscow or anywhere else? Of course, this allegation is totally false. It’s utterly false. It’s also utterly unfair, because it’s so obviously patently false. So I expect fairness, and I expect to put blame where it’s due.

Here’s a fact: We’re now being told from the hospital that the condition of the Palestinian would-be murderer is light, but the condition of the young boy that he attacked is actually very critical. So the attacker comes out on the cheap, so to speak. And yet people are making a moral symmetry at best between the attacker and his victim, and much worse, they’re accusing Israel of being the guilty party in this case. And that just will not fly. 

You know, the first order of the day in fighting terrorism is moral clarity. Nothing justifies terrorism. Nothing exonerates it. And stop trying to explain it away. This is terrorism, murder, pure and simple. Abu Mazen is inciting murder. Make him accountable and stop trying to justify it in any way - not with settlements, not with peace process, not with anything. It is unjustifiable and unacceptable, and the mere fact that this is brought up as a possible explanation, of course gives, I have to say - gives the terrorists a justification that they don’t even use. They might now. But they haven’t up to now, and that tells you a lot.

Thank you very much.