JERUSALEM: Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas warned against a rise in extremism if the ongoing peace process failed, in an interview to Israeli public television.
"Desperation will feed extremism," Abbas said in the exclusive interview aired Sunday, adding that he hoped that US efforts to end a deadlock in peace talks would succeed.
Israel and the Palestinians began face-to-face negotiations six weeks ago, but the talks look set to collapse following the end of an Israeli ban on settlement building which expired on September 26.
Israel has refused to reimpose the moratorium, while the Palestinians say they will not talk while settlers build on occupied Palestinian land, prompting a flurry of US diplomatic efforts to resolve the deadlock.
Abbas also reaffirmed that the Palestinians did not have to recognize Israel as a "Jewish state," as demanded by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in return for a possible settlement halt.
He said the Palestine Liberation Organization had recognized Israel’s right to exist in 1993 in the Oslo accords where both sides mutually recognized each other.
"It’s enough that we have recognized Israel… but do not ask us to recognize it as a Jewish state," he said, adding: "Every day you (the Israelis) come up with a new demand. It’s enough."
Meanwhile, Israeli security forces arrested a Hamas MP at his home in the occupied West Bank town of Hebron early on Monday, according to Hamas and local Palestinian security officials.
Omar Abdelrazaq, a senior Hamas official in the West Bank, said MP Hatem Qafaish had been arrested for unknown reasons.
The Israeli military would not immediately comment.
Qafaish has been detained on a number of previous occasions, including in 2006 when Israel arrested scores of Hamas MPs, ministers and other officials after its soldier Gilad Shalit was seized by Gaza militants.
Most have since been released, with around a dozen MPs still in jail, including two from the Western-backed president Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party and one from the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Hamas has demanded the release of around 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including several top militants responsible for major attacks, in exchange for Shalit, 24, who is still being held in a secret location in Gaza.
Israel and Hamas appeared to be close to reaching an agreement through a German mediator late last year but the efforts collapsed when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an offer to which Hamas did not respond.
Netanyahu said Sunday that the talks have resumed recently, without providing further details.
Hamas won a landslide victory in 2006 parliamentary elections but the legislative body has only met on a few occasions because of Israeli restrictions and the fierce divide between Fatah and Hamas.
