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Video: Misreading Netanyahu and the Peace Process

(CNN) Erin Burnett - Dore Gold, a former senior foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Netanyahu, was interviewed on CNN on Thursday: Q: Did Prime Minister Netanyahu make that comment on Monday saying there would be no two-state solution under his watch just to win the election or was he actually saying what he really believes? Gold: "I saw NBC News was playing this up that somehow his position changed in the past 24 hours. What the prime minister is saying is that he still maintains his policy of two states for two people as he has said before, but he is saying there won't be a Palestinian state today, and that is used in the actual Hebrew language of his statement. And the reason he is saying that is because the Middle East is far more dangerous. We have the moves of ISIS all across Syria and Iraq. We have the movements now of Iranian surrogates like Revolutionary Guard forces even getting close to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. So Israel will need very strong, robust security defenses in any arrangement. I think that was primarily on his mind when he made his statement." Q: In Washington that's not how it was seen. Two top Obama administration spokesmen today at the State Department and the White House specifically said that the prime minister has changed his policy on a two-state solution. Gold: "People like Secretary of State John Kerry worked day in and day out with Prime Minister Netanyahu and saw how committed he was to working out a solution with the Palestinians that left Israel with a secure border and not a full withdrawal. Secretary Kerry actually put forward a paper called a 'framework agreement' which Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed to. It was Mahmoud Abbas in March of 2014 who refused the Kerry plan when it was presented to him by President Obama in the Oval Office. So the fact is, Israel has gone along with this. The Palestinians said "no."
2015-03-20 00:00:00
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