Netanyahu. Photo Courtesy of UN-Photo/Marco Castro
If Palestinians were to get a state before a peace deal with Israel is reached, the result would not be peace according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It would be war.
He issued this warning amidst reports from i24 news and others that the French Parliament plans to offer a symbolic recognition of a Palestinian state—an idea that is growing in popularity in Europe. In comments released by his office from an interview with the i24 news channel, Netanyahu said, “Of course I’m worried about this because what they’re voting on is Palestine without peace. That’s what the Palestinians want. They want to have a state to continue, not to end the war, with Israel but to continue the war from improved boundaries.”
Netanyahu had examples of how this has already played out. “Every time we gave territory to the Palestinians, for example in Gaza, Iran walked in with its Palestinian proxies, fired thousands of rockets on our cities. Does anyone in Paris talk about this? ….When every place that we vacate becomes a bastion for militant Islam and for Iran?”
While Hamas militants have used Gaza to wage three wars with Israel, the territory claimed by the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) would threaten Israel even more if Israel withdrew from there today. Asked Netanyahu, “This is what is going to produce peace?!? To ask Israel to put the suburbs of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in the hands of Islamic militants? This is irresponsible. It’s not conducive to peace. In fact, it hardens the Palestinian positions because it tells them, you get a state—which will be used to attack Israel—you don’t have to give anything.”
Netanyahu’s concerns come as a new wave of terrorism has struck Israel, particularly in Jerusalem. And amid the upsurge in violence—ranging from a brutal synagogue massacre to ramming cars into groups of Israelis—the Palestinians are interested in getting the United Nations to declare their statehood without a deal with Israel.
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, November 23, 2014)