Likud minister: We vehemently oppose Palestinian state

Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, member of Israel’s security cabinet, has disclosed that Likud ministers “vehemently oppose” the notion of a Palestinian state.

Hanegbi, interviewed on 27 May, just before the Shavuot holiday, said that “There are some who are expressing concern, and they are quite right, that application of sovereignty might become associated with a position that adopts all aspects of the Trump plan”.

He went on to say that “One of the aspects we vehemently oppose — Palestinian statehood”.

Hanegbi was asked about the Bar-Ilan speech, in which Netanyahu, 11 years ago, ostensibly agreed to a “Palestinian state”. Hanegbi replied that the Bar Ilan speech had defined an arrangement “which would not really have been a sovereign state”, and immediately added that in any event, Israel no longer says what was said in the Bar Ilan speech, defining this as “wonderful progress”.

In his 2009 Bar Ilan speech, Netanyahu had spoken of a state which would be demilitarized by “clear commitments” of demilitarization from “our friends in the international community, led by the United States”. In more recent press appearances, however, Netanyahu has dismissed the Bar Ilan speech scenario as impossible. In 2018, CNN asked Netanyahu about a demilitarized state. Netanyahu replied: “Demilitarized by who??”, and said using the Palestinian state “label” was not productive.

Hanegbi said that he “could understand those who are concerned, but I can promise that the prime minister’s and government’s position, is to adopt the topics which are good for Israel’s security.”

Hanegbi was interviewed by a prime-time radio program (Reshet Bet), shortly before publication of holiday interviews by Prime Minister Netanyahu. Netanyahu’s weekend interview to Israel Hayom said that under certain conditions, Palestinian Arabs would have an entity “that President Trump defines as a state”.

In Prime Minister Netanyahu’s weekend interview to Makor Rishon’s editor-in-chief Hagai Segal, Netanyahu went further, assuring that there would be “no government decision” on the Palestinian state issue.

Expanding, Netanyahu told Segal that “there will be no government decision on the details of the plan or on adopting the plan. Netanyahu repeated his Washington commitment to “negotiate on the basis of” the Trump Plan.

Pressed by Segal to state his view on what Israel would be giving up, Netanyahu said “At this stage we know what we are getting”.