Netanyahu: Israel Not Obligated By U.S. Peace Plan

This comes from the Jerusalem Post:

Netanyahu: Israel Not Obligated By U.S. Peace Plan

Israel is not bound to agree to all points of the US proposal for a peace agreement with the Palestinians, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech Tuesday night.

“The Americans are working to solidify American positions,” he said at the Institute for National Security Studies conference. “Israel does not have to accept every American position.”

Netanyahu also reiterated his position that he does not “want a bi-national state and… this reflects the desires of most Israelis.” However, he qualified, neither does he want another “state sponsored by Iran” next door to Israel — a reference to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and Lebanon — so “the Palestinian state must be demilitarized, and therefore some symbols of sovereignty must be limited.”

Netanyahu also expressed some doubt as to “whether the Palestinians are really ready to grapple with the concessions they will have to make” in order to reach a peace agreement.

“We stand on two basic principles,” he said. “The first is recognition of the State of Israel as the national state of the Jewish people. This is the root of the conflict. The conflict is not about the settlements, its not about the settlers, and it’s not about a Palestinian state. The Zionist movement agreed to recognize a Palestinian state.

“The conflict is over the Jewish state. When we talk about the order, we are talking about the order in which we are asked to recognize a national Palestinian state, so can we not also demand [that they] recognize a national Jewish state?” he said.

Despite speaking about two states for two peoples, the prime minister refrained from directly broaching the hot topic of allowing West Bank settlers to choose whether they want to relocate to sovereign Israeli territory or remain under Palestinian rule under a future peace agreement. Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett had continued his campaign against the proposal in an earlier speech he made at the same conference.

“Do you know why? Why Jews cannot live under Palestinian rule? Do you know why? Why Palestinians can’t rule over Jews?” he said, reiterating a point he’d made on Facebook earlier in the day. “Because they will kill them. And do you know how I know this? Because it has already happened.”

Netanyahu: Under Interim Deal, Iran 6 Weeks Away From Bomb

Iran could build a nuclear weapon in as little as six weeks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned in a speech on Tuesday night.

“Although there are internal disagreements in Iran, there is no dispute in the regime about developing nuclear weapons and the goal of wiping Israel off the map,” he told the crowd at a conference of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

“The interim agreement in Geneva left Iran, according to our assessment, six weeks from a nuclear weapon, and therefore by our estimation, the test will be the permanent agreement, if such an agreement can be reached,” he said.

The next round of international nuclear negotiations with Iran is expected to be held in New York next month, according to officials involved in the planning.

“The whole world knows that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said. “We will only support an arrangement that ensures the complete dismantling of Iran’s infrastructure and capabilities to build nuclear weapons. We will not let Iran develop the capability to build nuclear weapons. This was and remains Israel’s stance.”

Israel has threatened to attack Iran should it not back off from its alleged pursuit of a military nuclear capability.

Netanyahu: Failure To Recognize Jewish State Core Of Conflict

The overarching formula that will ensure an Israeli-Palestinian agreement is a demilitarized state that recognizes the Jewish state of Israel, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Tuesday.

Netanyahu, speaking in Tel Aviv at the Institute for National Security Studies' annual international conference, said that formula epitomizes Israel's two main demands: that its security is maintained following an agreement, and that the agreement ends the conflict and all claims on Israel.

"We don't want to annex the Palestinians as Israeli citizens, and we don't want to rule over them," he said, "but the Palestinian state must be demilitarized, which means that certain signs of sovereignty need to be limited. The minute you demilitarize a state, you limit certain capabilities. That is necessary; that is the real Middle East." 

"We are interested in continuing the negotiations and try to get to this agreement, I know that the Americans are interested that we get there, I cannot tell you at this time whether the Palestinian leadership is ready to deal with the concessions it will have to make," he said.

Netanyahu said that his aim in the negotiations with the Palestinians is to prevent a bi-national state, and on the other hand to ensure that another Iranian-backed state is not created that will fire missiles and rockets into Israel.