Abbas on cooperation with Israel: "We cannot confront the State of Israel - neither militarily or in any other way"

Official PA TV broadcast the conference of the foreign ministers of the Islamic countries

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: “Truly, we formed the government from self-employed [professionals] and technocrats, and there are no members of any organization among them, especially not from Hamas: there is absolutely no one from Hamas in it [the government]. This government is not involved with issues relating to the negotiations and with political issues, but it is committed to the PLO guidelines. What are these guidelines? These guidelines specifically state the following: That the Palestinian government [should] recognize Israel – and we [do] recognize the State of Israel; that the government reject terrorism – and we [do] reject terrorism; that the government recognize the decisions of the international institutions – and we [do] recognize the decisions of the international institutions.
To these, we have added that the government believe in the negotiations, even if it is the PLO, not the government, which conducts the negotiations. In addition, the government [must] believe in peaceful popular resistance. There is an additional point that is neither popular nor liked: That the government believe in security cooperation with Israel. Of course, there are those who condemn us and accuse us on the issue of security cooperation, but it is in our interest. It is in our interest that there be security cooperation between us and the Israelis, so that we can defend ourselves, defend our people. We don’t want to return to anarchy or destruction as happened during the second Intifada (i.e., PA terror campaign 2000-2005). I say this in the clearest and most unequivocal way possible: we will not go back to [another] Intifada, which will destroy us, and so there is cooperation. There is also security cooperation in Gaza… This is well known and is being implemented at this moment. The issue of security cooperation is no shame or disgrace, but a situation we are bound to...
As for the Israeli government, it is causing a sharp escalation, and this is a new problem we are facing. The reason is the kidnapping of three boys near one of the settlements. Naturally, despite their [Israel's] presence in Area C, which is not under our security control, and despite the fact that they did not report the incident when it occurred, but over 12 hours later, we are [working] in coordination with them in order to find these boys, because they are, first and foremost, human beings, and we want to protect human lives. Even the Americans have told us that one of them is an American, and we answered that, whether American or Israeli, for us he is a human being and we must look for this human being and return him to his family. But the Prime Minister [Netanyahu] has found a suitable opportunity to use violence against us, to destroy everything and wreak havoc and destruction throughout the land, especially in the Hebron area... The truth is that whoever committed this act (the kidnapping) wants to destroy us; therefore, we will talk to them differently and hold a different position, whoever it was that committed this action. Because we cannot endure such actions; we cannot confront the State of Israel - neither militarily nor in any other way."
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