Peres: Terror will return to Israel

Former Israeli President Shimon Peres has sent a stark warning to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, alleging that the Palestinians would “go back to terror” if negotiations fail to resolve the present situation. "If there is no diplomatic resolution, the Palestinians will go back to terror," President Peres told the New York Times in an interview published today. "Knives, mines, suicide attacks" would return to the Israeli interior, he claimed. “The silence that Israel has been enjoying over the last few years will not continue,” Peres claimed. “Even if the local inhabitants do not want to resume the violence, they will be under the pressure of the Arab world. Money will be transferred to them, and weapons will be smuggled to them, and there will be no one who will stop this flow.” The former President meanwhile claimed “most of the world” would support the Palestinians. “Our economy will suffer gravely if a boycott is declared against us,” he admitted. “The world’s Jews want an Israel they can be proud of and not an Israel that has no borders and that is considered an occupying state.” The Israeli President reiterated criticism of Prime Minister Netanyahu, declaring his support for restarting negotiations with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whom Peres described as an "excellent partner.” Peres also claimed the Palestinian issue "isn’t the main problem in the Middle East" at the moment, although it affects the Jewish state’s relationship with the Muslim-majority region. On the fraught relationship between Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama, Peres pointed to settlement-building as a leading source of mistrust. "We must not lose the support of the United States,” he said. “We would be like a lone tree in the desert."