Netanyahu: I Don't Want a Binational State, but We Need to Control All of the Territory for the Fore

[uawchild]

Source: Haaretz (Israel)

Netanyahu: I Don't Want a Binational State, but We Need to Control All of the Territory for the Foreseeable Future. 'I'm asked if we will forever live by the sword – yes,' says prime minister.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that although he doesn't want a binational state, "at this time we need to control all of the territory for the foreseeable future."

MKs who took part in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting — where the prime minister spoke — told Haaretz that Netanyahu turned to the politicians and said, hinting at the anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination: "These days, there is talk about what would happen if this or that person would have remained. It's irrelevant; there are movements here of religion and Islam that have nothing to do with us." Netanyahu then turned to opposition MKs and said: "You think there is a magic wand here, but I disagree. I'm asked if we will forever live by the sword — yes."

Habayit Hayehudi MK Betzalel Smotrich asked Netanyahu: "Why do you even talk to (Palestinian President Mahmoud) Abbas? Why pull the world's leg?" Netanyahu responded by saying that Israel "is not talking to bin Laden or ISIS, but I will talk to whoever isn't calling for our destruction."


Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.682374

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This is why I am pessimistic that a two-state peace agreement will ever be reached. Many many Israelis feel that there is an existential need to contain the Palestinians and control the West Bank and Gaza to ensure the survival of the Jewish state. As I have said before, Israel and most Israelis seem to be willing to absorb world condemnation and continued civic unrest to maintain this control.

I don't see a humane endgame to this. The 40 odd-year occupation is essentially a slow motion annexation of the West Bank -- I wonder if it's time to accept this as the fiat accompli it seems to be. Millions of Syrians are fleeing to Europe right now, is it time to open our doors to the 4 million Palestinians also?

[geek tragedy]

1. Why would the Palestinians leave?

Within a generation, all they have to do is demand the right to vote and they will be on the road to complete and total victory.

Netanyahu is putting Israel on the path to national suicide.

[frizzled]

8. Has Netanyahu heard "He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword".

nt

[MurrayDelph]

10. I sometimes think Bibi thinks the lesson learned from Moses in Egypt

was that the Pharaoh wasn't hard-enough on the Jews.

At least, to me, that seems to be the way he wants to treat the Palestinians.

[Dont call me Shirley]

2. Warmonger.

[oldandhappy]

3. A choice, Bibi. A choice.

You can choose war.
You can choose peace.

Your mouth consistently says war.

[thesquanderer]

4. I share your pessimism, but only as long as Bibi is in power (n/t)

[lark]

5. War every day all day is all little murderer will accept.

Can't let anything get in the way of his MIC kickbacks. Has no desire to stop killing Arab women and children.

[eggplant]

6. He's a douchebag of a dinosaur.

He seems to enjoy nothing more than stirring up shit. Here, there, in Germany...

Retch.

[frizzled]

7. Honesty is good. If they won't end occupation, we need to move to boycott and sanctions.

Millions of Syrians are fleeing to Europe right now, is it time to open our doors to the 4 million Palestinians also?

It's their home. Why don't the occupiers leave?

[cpwm17]

9. Selfishness is the cause of all the evil in the world.

This is a case in point.

[cab67]

11. I was in Israel this past summer.

I came away very pessimistic about its future.

In most places where civil strife came to an end, the people living at its heart were part of the solution. Think Northern Ireland - diplomacy played a role, but mostly, Protestants and Catholics both just got tired of the violence. They were ready for it to end.

I can't see this happening in Israel and its occupied territories. The most rapidly growing demographics there - young Palestinians and ultra-orthodox Jewish Israelis - are the groups least likely to get tired of the violence. (The differences for each group to tolerate violence are very different.) So if we wait for a solution to come from those living there, we're going to wait a long, long time.

In this case, the solution will have to come from outside. And that means it will have to come from the U.S. As long as support for militant Israelis comes from the U.S. - whether from the government or private individuals makes no difference - there will be motivation from the more militant aspects of Israeli society to hold a firm line, which will radicalize more young Palestinians.

I agree that Israel has a right to defend itself. But when its policies feed into the cycle of violence that threatens it, something has to stop.


Added on edit: I don't want to come across as tarring all Palestinians and all Israelis with an overly broad brush. I met many wonderful people from all walks of society in that region. The majority just want to get on with their lives. Alas, the communities most interested in making sure others don't get on with their lives are growing.

[dembotoz]

12. sounds like the south african solution from years ago

are Palestinians 4/5 human???
2/3s or what

[Darb]

13. He wants the territory, just not the Palestinians.

He'd kill them all straight away if he could get away with it.

[Comrade Grumpy]

14. He wants to perpetuate the apartheid state.

[yurbud]

16. your last paragraph would reward Israel for ethnic cleansing