(Prime Minister's Office) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - From Prime Minister Netanyahu's address at Bar-Ilan University on October 6, 2013: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict started in 1921 on the day on which the Palestinian Arabs attacked the immigration hostel in Jaffa. Many Jews were killed in this attack, including the well-known writer Y.H. Brenner. This attack was not about territory or settlements; it was against Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel. Later there were more attacks: In 1929, the ancient Jewish community in Hebron was brutally slaughtered. It had existed there nearly uninterrupted for close to 4,000 years. After that, there were repeated and methodical attacks against the Jewish community in Israel in 1936 and in 1939. Later on there was the Partition Plan of 1947, wherein it was proposed that there be an Arab state - they didn't say Palestinian state - and a Jewish state. The Jews agreed, the Arabs refused. Even before 1967, for 19 years, the Arabs had us in a chokehold with the sole goal of uprooting us, of extinguishing our lives. What was that about? There were no territories then either. There was no occupation, unless Tel Aviv is considered occupied. The root of the conflict was and remains that which has been repeated for over 90 years - the profound objection by the hard core of Palestinians to the right of the Jewish people to its own country in the Land of Israel. An essential condition for reaching a genuine resolution remains the reversal of the refusal to recognize the right of the Jews to a nation-state of their own in the land of their ancestors.
2013-10-08 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive