Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was disappointed that Germany had abstained from the vote at the United Nations General Assembly, in which Palestine was recognized as a non-member observer state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was disappointed that Germany had abstained from the vote at the United Nations General Assembly, in which Palestine was recognized as a non-member observer state.

On a visit to Berlin, Netanyahu joined German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a meeting between most of their cabinet ministers after a private dinner late Wednesday.

Setting a bitter tone for the Merkel meeting, Netanyahu told Thursday's German daily Die Welt that he was "disappointed" that Berlin had abstained from voting at the UN despite reported pleas by Tel Aviv to reject the Palestinian resolution.

"People are convinced that there is a special relationship between Germany and Israel," he said.
"I think Chancellor Merkel was of the opinion that this vote would in some way foster peace. In fact the opposite is the case: after the UN vote, the Palestinian Authority under president (Mahmud) Abbas is making plans to join with the terrorists of Hamas."

The Zionist PM arrived from Prague where he had singled out the Czech Republic for its "friendship and courage" as the only European state to have opposed a Palestinian status upgrade at the UNGA last week.

Netanyahu's first European visit since the UN vote Thursday came amid mounting international calls for the Zionist entity to drop plans to build 3,000 new settler units in al-Quds.
He announced the move in reaction to the upgrading of Palestine and has refused to go back on the decision despite strong international condemnation.

France, Britain, Spain, the European Union, Denmark, Sweden, Australia and Egypt have all summoned the Israeli ambassadors to protest the plans, which also drew criticism from Russia and Japan.

Germany stopped short of such a move. But Merkel sharply condemned the policy as potentially torpedoing hopes for peace and the viability of a Palestinian state.

The Zionist entity “is undermining faith in its willingness to negotiate and the geographic space for a future Palestinian state, which must be the basis for a two-state solution, is disappearing," her spokesman Steffen Seibert said this week.