Granting the Palestinians statehood in the wake of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, would amount to the creation of a “Hamas state,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar charged on Wednesday, speaking hours after his US counterpart endorsed the recognition of “Palestine.”
“In the current situation, establishing a Palestinian state will surely be a Hamas state,” Israel’s top diplomat told an Italian reporter who asked about US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s remarks during a joint press briefing with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Rome.
Sa’ar added that “there is a reason why the Palestinian Authority didn’t make elections since 2005.”
A poll published inb December showed that nearly two-thirds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and Judea and Samaria prefer Hamasto be part of, or even lead, a governing body that would control the Strip after the current war with Jerusalem concludes.
“A Hamas state will not only not solve the conflict, but will deteriorate security, peace and stability of the region,” continued the diplomat. For the Palestinian Authority to become a possible peace partner, Ramallah must stop its practice of rewarding terrorists, Sa’ar said.
The Israeli foreign minister noted that the European Union previously failed to convince the PA to abolish its “pay for slay” policy, under which it disburses monthly stipends to terrorists and their relatives.
“If they will stop poisoning the minds of future generations, we might have a chance to go forward in a path for real peace,” Sa’ar concluded.
In what could be his final speech on the job, Blinken on Tuesday stated that Jerusalem “must embrace a time-bound, conditions-based path toward forming an independent Palestinian state.”
“Israel will have to accept reuniting Gaza and the West Bank under the leadership of a reformed PA,” the Biden administration official claimed in the address, presenting his proposal for the “day after” the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC.
The “capacity and legitimacy” of the PA, which he described as the “only viable alternative” to the Iranian-backed terror group, has been undermined by the current government in Jerusalem, Blinken claimed.
“Israel continues to hold back PA tax revenues that it collects on behalf of the Palestinians—funds that belong to the Palestinians, and that the PA needs to pay people who provide essential services like health care and security in the West Bank, which is vital to Israel’s own security,” he said.
Jerusalem says the “pay-for-slay” policy only encourages terror and that Israel offsets an equivalent amount from taxes it collects for Ramallah.
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