Story highlights Netanyahu was never serious about peace talks, Palestinian official says 
 
 Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel won't take part in negotiations backed by Hamas 
 
 "I call on President Abbas: Tear up your pact with Hamas," Netanyahu says 
 
 Netanyahu says he will "seek other ways" to achieve peace if necessary 
 
 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel cannot negotiate with the government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas while it is backed by Hamas. 
 
 "I call on President Abbas: Tear up your pact with Hamas," Netanyahu said on CNN's "State of the Union." 
 
 "We're not going to negotiate with a government backed by Hamas unless Hamas changes its position and says it's willing to recognize Israel," he said. 
 
 Netanyahu's comments come four days after the Abbas-led Palestinian movement Fatah, which controls the West Bank and dominates the Palestinian Authority, said it would attempt to form a unity government with Hamas, the militant Islamic group that controls Gaza. Hamas hasn't recognized Israel's right to exist, and Israel canceled scheduled peace talks after Wednesday's announcement. 
 
 Netanyahu said that if Israel cannot reach peace with Palestinians through an agreement, "we'll seek other ways" to achieve peace. "I'm not going to accept a stalemate," he said. 
 
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 But Palestinian lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi swiftly criticized Netanyahu's "extremely cynical" declaration. Ashrawi accused the Israeli leader of trying to torpedo the peace process by expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank, where most of a projected Palestinian state would be located, and maintaining the Israeli blockade of Gaza. 
 
 "He did everything possible to undermine the talks, and now he is using the pretext of reunification in order to say 'You don't qualify,'" Ashrawi said. She dismissed Netanyahu's assertion that he remained interested in a settlement of the decades-old conflict as "lip service." 
 
 "We judge by his actions," she said. "He has been systematically dismantling the process, systematically destroying its very foundations and systematically destroying the very objective, which is a two-state solution, by stealing the land of the Palestinian state. Very simply, if he is serious then he will act in a way that will demonstrate his seriousness." 
 
 In the interview Sunday, Netanyahu praised the efforts of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry over the past nine months, saying the United States has been "indispensable" in pushing for peace. 
 
 "I appreciate Secretary Kerry's unbelievable efforts," he said. "They don't always succeed -- unfortunately, President Abbas made sure of that by embracing Hamas. But I have to credit John Kerry for his efforts." 
 
 Netanyahu also voiced skepticism over comments by Abbas released Sunday in which the Palestinian leader called the Holocaust the most heinous crime in modern human history. 
 
 Abbas "can't have it both ways," by calling the Holocaust the most heinous crime in modern history while embracing Hamas, a "terrorist organization that openly denies the Holocaust," Netanyahu said. 
 
 He suggested Abbas' remarks, released by his office, were an attempt to placate Western public opinion in the wake of Fatah's step toward Hamas. 
 
 The Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank have been run separately for seven years. The split began taking shape in 2006 when Hamas, participating in Palestinian polls for the first time, won a majority in the Palestinian parliament. 
 
 The Palestinian Authority formed a coalition government with Hamas that year, with Abbas retaining the presidency and Hamas member Ismail Haniya becoming prime minister. But when Abbas dissolved the government in 2007, Hamas seized control of Gaza, and Haniya became Gaza's de facto political leader. 
 
 The West for years has shown support to Fatah and warned it not to join hands with militant Hamas, which several countries, including the United States, have deemed a terrorist organization. 

 RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday called the Holocaust "the most heinous crime" of modern history and expressed his sympathy for the victims, a rare acknowledgment by an Arab leader of Jewish suffering during the Nazi genocide. 
 
 File -- In this Friday, Oct. 26, 2007 file photo, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, attends Muslim prayers at a mosque adjacent to his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Abbas called the Holocaust... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during a meeting with the Palestinian Central Council, a top decision-making body, at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, in this April... (Associated Press) 
 
 Abbas' comments appeared, in part, aimed at reaching out to Israeli public opinion at a time of deep crisis in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. The remarks were published by the Palestinian official news agency WAFA just hours before the start of Israel's annual Holocaust commemoration. 
 
 The decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been accompanied by mutual mistrust. 
 
 Many Israelis fear that the Palestinians aren't truly ready to accept a Jewish presence in the Holy Land, and that ignorance or even denial of the Holocaust among Palestinians is an expression of that attitude. Denials or attempts to minimize the Holocaust, which saw the systematic killing of 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany in World War II, are widespread in the Arab world. 
 
 Many Palestinians fear that if they acknowledge the Holocaust, they will diminish their own claims based on years of suffering, including their uprooting during Israel's 1948 creation and decades under Israeli occupation. 
 
 Abbas' office said he discussed the Holocaust in a meeting with an American rabbi, Marc Schneier, who visited Abbas' headquarters in Ramallah last week. 
 
 Abbas told Schneier that "what happened to the Jews in the Holocaust is the most heinous crime to have occurred against humanity in the modern era," according to comments carried by WAFA on Sunday. 
 
 The agency quoted Abbas as expressing his "sympathy with the families of the victims and many other innocent people who were killed." 
 
 Abbas said the Holocaust was an expression of the idea of ethnic discrimination and racism, and connected it to the Palestinian suffering of today. 
 
 "The Palestinian people, who suffer from injustice, oppression and (are) denied freedom and peace, are the first to demand to lift the injustice and racism that befell other peoples subjected to such crimes," he said. 
 
 Abbas' statement came as the latest U.S. attempt to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal was on the verge of collapse. At the start of negotiations in late July, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had set an end-of-April target date for a peace deal. He later lowered expectations, calling for the outlines of an agreement and, in a last attempt, for a deal on extending the talks. 
 
 However, none of Kerry's objectives appear within reach, since no progress has been made. Instead, the two sides have been bogged down in mutual accusations. 
 
 Last week, Israel suspended negotiations in response to a reconciliation deal between Abbas and his political rival, the Islamic militant Hamas. At the time, Israeli leaders alleged Abbas preferred peace with the militants, who have called for Israel's destruction, to peace with Israel. 
 
 Hamas has traditionally refrained from acknowledging the Holocaust and in 2009 protested against the subject being taught in United Nations-run schools in Gaza. Hamas and Israel are bitter enemies. Hamas has killed hundreds of Israelis in militant attacks and Israel routinely targets it in airstrikes and military operations. 
 
 Abbas himself has been accused of minimizing the scope of the Holocaust in a doctoral dissertation in the 1970s, though in recent years he's edged toward acknowledging Jewish suffering. In 2003, he said that "we do not ignore the sufferings of the Jews throughout history," but that "in exchange, we hope that the Israelis will not turn their backs on the sufferings of the Palestinians." 
 
 Speaking Sunday before a Cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to play down the importance of Abbas' latest comments. 
 
 "Instead of issuing statements designed to placate global public opinion, (Abbas) needs to choose between the alliance with Hamas, a terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of Israel and denies the Holocaust, and a true peace with Israel," Netanyahu said. 
 
 Abbas has said he is ready to extend negotiations beyond Tuesday's deadline, provided Israel halts settlement construction and keeps a promise to release a group of veteran Palestinian prisoners. Those are steps Israel has refused to take and which initially imperiled the talks. 
 
 Abbas said Saturday that any interim unity government with Hamas would be based on his political platform, not that of Hamas. 
 
 On Sunday, he said Israel must not walk away. 
 
 "On the incredibly sad commemoration of Holocaust Day, we call on the Israeli government to seize the current opportunity to conclude a just and comprehensive peace in the region, based on the two states vision, Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security," Abbas said. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Ian Deitch in Jerusalem and Mohammed Daraghmeh contributed to this report.
– As Israel today marks its annual Holocaust commemoration, the AP notes that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a rare statement proclaiming that "what happened to the Jews in the Holocaust is the most heinous crime to have occurred against humanity in the modern era" and expressing his "sympathy with the families of the victims and many other innocent people who were killed." The two sides aren't exactly cozy since the breakdown of peace talks, and CNN reports that Benjamin Netanyahu immediately responded thusly: "I call on President Abbas: Tear up your pact with Hamas," the Israeli PM told the network. "We're not going to negotiate with a government backed by Hamas unless Hamas changes its position and says it's willing to recognize Israel." Further, if Palestinians fail to return to the negotiating table, "we'll seek other" means of forging peace. "I'm not going to accept a stalemate," Netanyahu said.