Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said he wants peace with Palestine but described any future independent state as a platform to destroy Israel.
For that reason, he said, sovereign power over security in Palestine must remain with Israel.
Speaking at the White House, where he met US president Donald Trump, Mr Netanyahu described the October 7th, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip as evidence of what Palestinians would do with a state.
Mr Trump said “I don’t know” when asked by reporters if a two-state solution was possible and referred the question to Mr Netanyahu.
READ MORE
It followed reports that Israel has laid out plans to force all Palestinians in Gaza into a camp on the ruins of Rafah – a plan that has been criticised as a blueprint for ethnic cleansing.
The Israeli leader added: “I think the Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves, but none of the powers to threaten us. That means a sovereign power, like overall security, will always remain in our hands.”
Later he added: “After October 7th, people said the Palestinians have a state, a Hamas state in Gaza and look what they did with it. They didn’t build it up. They built down into bunkers, into terror tunnels after which they massacred our people, raped our women, beheaded our men, invaded our cities and our towns, our kibbutzim and did horrendous massacres, the kind of which we didn’t see since World War Two and the Nazis, the Holocaust. So people aren’t likely to say: ‘Let’s just give them another state.’ It’ll be a platform to destroy Israel.”
Mr Netanyahu added: “We will work out a peace with our Palestinian neighbours, those who don’t want to destroy us and we will work out a peace in which our security, the sovereign power of security, always remains in our hands.
“Now people will say: ‘It’s not a complete state, it’s not a state, it’s not that.’ We don’t care. We vowed never again. Never again is now. It’s not going to happen again.”
[ US-backed aid group proposed building camps for displaced people in GazaOpens in new window ]
Palestinians have long sought to create an independent state in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem through a US-mediated peace process.
Many accuse Israel of having destroyed Palestinian statehood prospects through increased settlement building in the West Bank and by levelling much of Gaza during the current war. Israel rejects this.
Cabinet ministers in Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party called last week for Israel to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank before the Knesset goes into recess at the end of July.
Israel’s pro-settler politicians have been emboldened by the return to the White House of Mr Trump, who has proposed Palestinians leave Gaza, a suggestion widely condemned across the Middle East and beyond.
The Gaza war erupted when Hamas attacked southern Israel in October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Some 50 hostages remain in Gaza, with 20 believed to be alive.
Israel’s subsequent assault on the Palestinian enclave has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry. Most of Gaza’s population has been displaced by the war.
Mr Trump hosted Mr Netanyahu at a White House dinner on Monday, while Israeli officials held indirect negotiations with Hamas in Qatar aimed at securing a US-brokered Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal.
Mr Trump expressed confidence that Hamas was willing to end the 21-month conflict.
“They want to meet and they want to have that ceasefire,” he said remarks to reporters at the White House.
Mr Netanyahu said he was working with the US on finding countries that will “give Palestinians a better future”.
“If people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave,” he added.
During Monday’s meeting, Mr Netanyahu told Mr Trump he would nominate him for the Nobel peace prize. He presented Mr Trump with a letter he said he had sent to the Nobel committee.
“I want to express the appreciation and admiration not only of all Israelis, but of the Jewish people,” Mr Netanyahu said before presenting the letter. “You deserve it.”
“Coming from you in particular, this is very meaningful,” Mr Trump said.
It was the second high-profile nomination for the president: last month Pakistan said it would recommend Trump for the prize.
During the meeting, Mr Trump also said he “hoped” that the US would not have to strike Iran again.
“They want to work something out,” he said. “They’re very different now than they were two weeks ago.”
He declined to give a date for upcoming talks with Iran, but told reporters they would find out more details on Tuesday. – Reuters/Guardian
