Despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claims of commitment to reach a deal within a year, Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon today dismissed the notion, saying he didn’t believe anyone in the cabinet thought it would happen.

“I don’t know a single minister in the septet who thinks it’s possible to reach a deal in the forseeable future,” Yaalon insisted. Peace talks have been stalled for weeks, since Israel allowed a settlement construction freeze to expire.

But Yaalon insisted that the Palestinians in general were impossible to make peace with, condemning them for “incitement” and saying the Palestinian Authority’s refusal to announce its official support for Israel as a uniquely “Jewish State” proved that there was “no chance of reaching a peace deal.”

Yaalon, who previously served as head of Israel’s military and was widely expected to take the role of Defense Minister before Labor joined the Netanyahu government, has been an outspoken opponent of the peace deal, and has previously suggested that a peace deal with the Palestinians could never be reached without a military victory over Iran.

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