Israel Minister: End of Talks Signals 'New Era'

JERUSALEM, Israel -- The Israeli government continues to assess the latest collapse of negotiations with the Palestinians.

Israel suspended its participation after Palestinian Authority chairman Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] agreed to a unity government with the Hamas terrorist organization.

"One thing is clear: their activity on the ideological level -- Abu Mazen says very clearly to us in Israel, 'I have no intention to have real peace with you,'" Brig.-Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, with the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, told CBN News.

Both groups share the same core values: hating Jews and believing Israel will disappear.

"The message is very clear for us, 'I prefer unity with Hamas than having to contend with the challenge of accepting Israel as a Jewish state," Kuperwasser said.

The United States expressed its disappointment at the sudden P.A. reconciliation deal. Still, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned Israel of dire consequences if it didn't reach an agreement with the Palestinians.

One Israeli minister is saying, however, that this is a new beginning.

"I think an era has ended and a new era has begun. The era of Oslo is at its end. The new era, I would call it -- the era of realism," Economy Minister Naftali Bennett told foreign journalists.

Bennett said the two sides need to learn to co-exist.

"What I think we need to do is be realistic about what we can achieve -- massively invest in infrastructure, in economy, in the quality of lives, in self-governance of the Palestinians," he explained.

Bennett said Israel should apply its law to the Israeli-controlled part of the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria.

Under Bennett's plan, Israel would offer full citizenship to the 100,000 Palestinians living there. Bennett said his proposal stops short of a Palestinian state in the rest of the West Bank where many more Palestinians live because Israel needs to have full security control.

"When you have overriding control of security it means that you can use tweezers to stop terror instead of a hammer," Bennett said.

This isn't the first time peace talks have been deadlocked, but some say this presents an opportunity. Just how this works out on the ground remains to be seen.