Prime Minister Yair Lapid said a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was “the right thing” for Israel, addressing the world from the United Nations General Assembly’s high-level meeting Thursday.
Speaking on his largest stage since becoming prime minister three months ago, Lapid decried Iranian antisemitism, urged the world to counter Tehran’s nuclear ambitions with a “credible military threat,” touted Israel’s peace agreements with regional neighbors and said he and most Israelis supported a peaceful Palestinian state alongside Israel.
“An agreement with the Palestinians, based on two states for two peoples, is the right thing for Israel’s security, for Israel’s economy and for the future of our children,” he declared.
Lapid’s decision to give full-throated backing to Palestinian statehood on the world stage marked a sharp shift from addresses in the previous five years from former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who largely used the pulpit to inveigh against Iran and what he claimed was Palestinian rejection of Israeli peace efforts. In 2016, Netanyahu told the UN plenum he was committed to a two-state vision, but later disavowed the comments.
The news that Lapid would call for a two-state solution in his speech had drawn condemnation from the right flank of his governing coalition, as well as Netanyahu, who is currently opposition leader and his chief rival in upcoming elections.
In a statement released while Lapid was still delivering his address, Netanyahu accused the premier of “bringing the Palestinians back to the forefront of the world stage and putting Israel right into the Palestinian pit.”
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