Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this Thursday (18) that he expressed to the United States his opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a post-war scenario in Gaza.
“I tell this truth to our American friends and I have also stopped the attempt to impose on us a reality that would harm Israel's security,” Netanyahu said, adding that the majority of Israel's population rejects a possible Palestinian state, an initiative that the president's government Joe Biden supports it as part of the so-called “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Netanyahu argued that in any possible agreement with the Palestinians, “Israel must maintain security control over all territory west of the Jordan Valley,” referring to a significant part of the West Bank, which the country has occupied since 1967.
During his five visits to the region since the start of the Gaza war on October 7, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reiterated the US government's position in favor of a two-state solution, and Washington – as well as the European Union (EU) – proposed as a post-war option that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) regain control of the Strip, from where it was expelled in 2007, after the terrorist group Hamas took power by force.
In recent days, there have been statements from Saudi Arabia that the normalization of relations with Israel – something both countries were seeking, but which was paralyzed by the Gaza war – could only happen with a clear path to the creation of a Palestinian state.
“In all the territories from which we withdrew, we received terrorism, terrible terrorism against us. This happened in southern Lebanon, in the Gaza Strip and in Judea and in Samaria (the biblical name for the West Bank),” said the prime minister.
He insisted the Gaza offensive would continue and said a ceasefire without an end to Hamas would only harm Israel.
“Stopping the war without achieving our goals will undermine Israel's security for generations, create a message of weakness, and the next massacre will only be a matter of time,” he recalled.
Netanyahu reiterated that the military route is the only one that can also be effective in rescuing the approximately 100 hostages still alive in Gaza and emphasized that the offensive will last “for many months” until “total victory over Hamas.”
#Netanyahu #tells #rejects #Palestinian #state #part #postwar #Gaza
