Middle East Monitor / November 1, 2021
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said that his government “strongly rejects” the creation of a Palestinian state, Quds Press reported yesterday.
According to the news site, prior to heading to Glasgow to take part in the UN conference on climate change, Bennett told The Times (London): “Creating state-like entities doesn’t work.”
“I don’t think there’s a significant leader in the region who currently thinks there’s somewhere to go right now in the diplomatic process [with the Palestinians]. We learned the hard way that transferring territory and creating state-like entities doesn’t work,” he said.
“Like me, [Arab leaders] understand what’s achievable and want stability.”
He said there are benefits to peace with Israel. “We have an interest that the peace we have with Jordan and Egypt will trickle down also to benefits for consumers so they literally feel the fruits of peace … Until now, the peace with our neighbours has remained at the diplomatic-political level but the fruits didn’t trickle down.”
He went on to warn of Iran’s nuclear program and said that Israel is currently involved in a cold war with Iran.
“For the last 30 years Iran positioned around us to distract us. There’s a regional power called Iran and there’s a regional power called Israel. Iran is a rotten regime.”
“We will work against them, using all our energy, all our innovation and technology and economy to get to a point where we are a number of steps ahead,” he added.
