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Source: http://www.policyconference.org/article/transcripts/2018/schumer.asp
Top Senate Democrat Blames Peace Deadlock on Palestinians
(AIPAC) Sen. Chuck Schumer - U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told AIPAC on Monday: "Many wonder: 'Why don't we have peace in the Middle East?' even though a majority of Israelis want peace....There are some who argue the settlements are the reason there's not peace, but we all know what happened in Gaza. Israel voluntarily got rid of the settlements there, the Israeli soldiers dragged the settlers out of Netzarim, and three weeks later the Palestinians threw rockets into Sderot. It's sure not the settlements that are the blockage to peace." "During the negotiations in 2000, [Prime Minister] Ehud Barak was making huge territorial concessions that most Israelis didn't like, [but] it was Arafat who rejected the settlement....And it's certainly not because we've moved the embassy to where it should belong in Jerusalem." "Why don't we have peace? Because...too many Palestinians and too many Arabs do not want any Jewish state in the Middle East....We, in America, must stand strong with Israel through thick and thin. We must, because that is the reason, not any of these other false shibboleths, why there is not peace in the Middle East."