JERUSALEM (AP) — Days after winning Israel’s election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be backtracking from hard-line statements that ruled out the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu says in a TV interview Thursday that he remains committed to Palestinian statehood — if conditions in the region improve. He tells MSNBC: “I haven’t changed my policy.”
During the final days of the campaign, Netanyahu said that he would not agree to establish a Palestinian state in the current climate — a position that drew heavy criticism from Washington. The two-state solution is a key U.S. foreign policy objective.
Netanyahu said he believes Israel cannot yield captured land to the Palestinians because it will be taken over by Islamic extremists, but said he would support Palestinian independence if circumstances change.
Watch the clip:
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By what I’m sure is a complete coincidence, that happens to be precisely the line of most Republicans: no statehood now, but maybe in the future if they behave themselves.
But then, making it easier for the GOP to keep touting him as the sole spokesman for all Jews couldn’t possible be on his mind, could it?
(Incidentally, despite all the hype about his “crushing” victory, he did it solely by siphoning votes from other right-wing parties. The right-wing bloc actually shrank since the last election: 61 seats then, to 57 now. Israel, for now, is so polarized, it makes the US look functional.)
EGR - “Where’s your Moses, now?”
He cannot be trusted. The US MUST completely cut off Israel.
Yes, he’d support a Palestinian state if conditions changed. Like if all the Palestinians moved away or stopped existing. In other words, his position never changed and we’re stuck having to pretend they don’t want all the land for themselves.
There are certain issues where both sides are in the wrong, and this is definitely one of them. I don’t even like reading stories about the whole Israel-Palestine issue, because both sides have leaders who have no interest in seeing this ever end. It’s just a political charade where they do just enough to not look like true villains while ensuring that peace is never allowed to happen.
The battles in this world aren’t right versus left, religion versus religion, country versus country. Rather, it’s extremists versus non-extremists. And the extremists will do whatever it takes to convince people that non-extremism can’t work. They want to set the world on fire, to assure people that the only way to deal with it is more fire. And they’re not doing it so that their side wins, because their methods can never achieve victory. They do it because that’s how they maintain power. And even if they were to somehow wipe out their opponent, they’d just find another enemy to rail against. And in the end, it’s the extremists on both sides who are working together to make this happen.
“When conditions change”- like when hell freezes over.