Netanyahu, who continues to face calls for his resignation, gave the unusually direct statement on this subject during a Dec. 17 press conference, telling reporters, “I’m proud that I prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state.” Critics of the longstanding Israeli strategy that embraces a single-state solution have said that not giving Palestinians a homeland of their own, along with enforcing discriminatory policies global leaders have equated with apartheid, has been the cause for violence inflicted upon Israelis over decades. Netanyahu says that an independent Palestinian state next to Israel would lead to more violence. “Everybody understands what that Palestine state could have been, now that we’ve seen the little Palestinian state in Gaza,” he said. “Everyone understands what would have happened if we had capitulated to international pressures and enabled a state like that in Judea and Samaria [the occupied West Bank], surrounding Jerusalem and on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.” This week’s remarks were not the first time Netanyahu has claimed a Palestinian homeland would endanger Israel. In 2015, he said, “I think that anyone who is going to establish a Palestinian state today and evacuate lands is giving attack grounds to the radical Islam against the state of Israel. Anyone who ignores this is sticking his head in the sand. The left does this time and time again. We are realistic and understand.” During the Dec. 7 press conference, Netanyahu defended his efforts in thwarting the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), which backed a two-state solution, calling allowing the organization a foothold in Gaza “a terrible mistake.” The prime minister told a reporter, “You and your journalist friends have been blaming me for almost 30 years for putting the brakes on the Oslo Accords, and preventing the Palestinian state. That’s true.” For decades, Israel has funded Hamas, which carried out a deadly attack on Oct. 7 that resulted in the deaths of some 1,200 people with several hundred hostages taken. The reason for backing the organization, which is recognized internationally as a terrorist group, is to prevent a two-state solution. Galit Distel-Atbaryan, former Israeli Minister of Information and currently serving member of the Knesset for the Likud party, says that Netanyahu has been willing to support Hamas because: “Every home needs a balcony, and Israel is a home. The balcony of this home is Samaria. … If Hamas crumbles, Mahmoud Abbas may rule the strip. If he rules it, voices on the left will encourage negotiations, a political settlement, and a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria as well. … This is the real reason Netanyahu doesn’t annihilate Hamas, everything else is bull——.”Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he’s “proud” of his intervention in making sure an independent Palestinian state was never allowed to be created.
