Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said that Israel must maintain its military control over the West Bank in the event of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
“The idea that we can give up territory and achieve peace is not right,” Netanyahu told Army Radio in a pre-Shavuot holiday interview.
“In order to assure our existence we need to have military and security control over all of the territory west of the Jordan [River],” he said, reaffirming his commitment to a policy that is rejected by Palestinians, who seek a full Israeli withdrawal from the territory.
In the radio interview, Netanyahu asserted the root of the conflict lies not with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, but rather in Palestinian intransigence regarding recognition of Jewish rights to any part of the land.
Netanyahu’s comments came after visiting US President Donald Trump last week impressed on the prime minister and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that he is determined to work on a peace agreement.
“It is not because of the territories and the settlements,” Netanyahu said, noting the history of conflict between Jews and Arabs in the area from 1920, long before the establishment of Israel in 1948 and the capture of the West Bank in 1967.
Even before 1967 the Arabs “wanted to get rid of us from Tel Aviv, and after we pulled out of Gaza [in 2005] they [still] want to get rid of us from Tel Aviv,” Netanyahu said. The prime minister said that when Israel proposed to the Palestinians that it relinquish all the territory they want as long as they give up on the right of return for Palestinians who fled in 1948, “they squirm in their seats and are not prepared to give an answer.”
“The root of this problem was and still is that continued refusal by the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a the homeland of the Jewish people in any borders,” Netanyahu said.
Israeli seek peace, but the Palestinians are stuck in their attitude of “not setting up a state but rather negating the existence of a state, the Jewish state,” the prime minister insisted.
As soon as that is changed, “then there is hope for peace, because you can’t build peace on a foundation of lies,” he said.
“There is no nation that knows the price of war more than we do — we want a real peace,” Netanyahu added.
3 comments:
Mr. Prime minister, may the God of Yisrael strengthen you and your Cabinet members to stand up 👆 for your people and their Inheritance. My prayers are with you on that side of the Globe. Shalom.
Hey world,let us for a moment or two take a look at the situation in the Middle East. The land over which the war is all about,now let's be honest, who is the rightful owner of the land? I would really really love ❤ to get some feedback.
God tells the world, and His People clearly through Ezekiel 37, who His Land, His People are...Bibi has referenced Ezekiel 37, many times over the decades...
Ezekiel 37:21-28
21 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:
22 And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.
23 Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.
24 And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.
25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.
26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.
27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
28 And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.
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