[Jerusalem Post] Herb Keinon - The international guarantees Israel is seeking to ensure that a future Palestinian state remains demilitarized does not mean the introduction of foreign forces, Prime Minister Netanyahu told the cabinet Sunday. Expanding on his speech last week, Netanyahu said that Israel wanted international acceptance of the principle that it could take the actions it thought necessary to ensure the future state's demilitarization. Israel wanted to avoid a situation wherein it would withdraw from territory to be demilitarized, the Palestinians would violate that agreement, and then Israel would be blamed for going back into the Palestinian territories to destroy weapons. "I don't understand why for self-determination the Palestinians need Kassam and Grad rockets," Netanyahu said. "I understand they need a strong police and security apparatus, and we encourage that, but do they need tanks, artillery or rockets?" Regarding the demand for Palestinian recognition of Israel as the homeland for the Jewish people, Netanyahu said this was necessary to ensure that any agreement reached would put an end to all Palestinian claims on Israel.
2009-06-22 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive