[Prime Minister's Office] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Cabinet Sunday: "I would like to set one thing straight in advance simply because it has been in the media incorrectly today. We insist that the Palestinians - in any diplomatic settlement with us - will recognize the State of Israel as the national state of the Jewish people. The entire international community demands that we recognize the principle of two states for two peoples and we are discovering that this is two states but not for two peoples but two states for one people, or two states for a people-and-a-half. That is to say, there is no doubt that we are being asked to recognize the Palestinian state as the national state for the Palestinian people, but...the Palestinians have no intention of recognizing the national state of the Jewish people." "We have no intention of ruling over the Palestinians. We want for them to rule themselves, except for those powers that could threaten our security and our existence. But there is no doubt that we insist that they recognize the State of Israel as the national state of the Jewish people. We have never conditioned the start and existence of talks on advance agreement about this, but neither can we see progress on a future settlement without their agreement to this condition."
2009-04-21 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive