(CBS News) Lesley Stahl - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told "60 Minutes" on Sunday his country has never felt as secure or less isolated. Netanyahu also noted, "I know Donald Trump. I know him very well. And I think his attitude, his support for Israel is clear. He feels very warmly about the Jewish state, about the Jewish people and about Jewish people. There's no question about that." "Israel's position in the Arab world has changed because they no longer see Israel as their enemy, but as their ally, in their indispensable battle against the forces of militant Islam, either those led by Iran, the Shiites, or those led by ISIS, the militant Sunnis." "Palestinians know - they look at Aleppo in Syria, and they look at Yemen, and they look at Libya, and they look at other places, and they know that our intention is coexistence." Stahl: They want you to stop expanding settlements. Netanyahu: "Well, we did. We stopped. We stopped in Gaza. We tore out the settlements and gave the Palestinians Gaza. And what happened? Did we get peace? We got 20,000 rockets on our heads and terror tunnels....I think the obsession, the focus on settlements as though this were the issue and this is the obstacle to peace, I disagree with that." "The real reason we haven't had peace is because of a persistent refusal of the Palestinians to recognize a Jewish state in any border. 'You ask us to recognize you, I'm willing to do that. I ask you to recognize us. Recognize the Jewish state, for God's sake.' And if they do, this thing will begin to correct itself very quickly."
2016-12-12 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive