(Bloomberg) Eli Lake - Asked in a pre-election interview if there was any chance for a Palestinian state under another Netanyahu government, the prime minister declared there was none. Many journalists saw this as a reversal of Netanyahu's speech in 2009 at Bar-Ilan University, in which he laid out his vision for a demilitarized Palestinian state. But the context here is important. Netanyahu prefaced his answer by stating something very obvious: "I think that anyone who is going to establish a Palestinian state today and evacuate lands is giving attack grounds to radical Islam against the State of Israel." There have been three Gaza wars since Israel's 2005 pullout, and most Israelis fear that a similar withdrawal from the West Bank would yield the same results. This concern has increased over the last year as PA President Mahmoud Abbas - Israel's peace partner - has been trying to form a unity government with Hamas, a jihadist organization committed to Israel's destruction.
2015-03-19 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive