Israel Matzav

Israeli official: 'No Palestinian state in our generation'

The Jerusalem official took Netanyahu’s disavowal of Palestinian statehood further, claiming that a two state-solution would be out of reach “in our generation,” due to Palestinian rejections of Israeli proposals and US-led agreements.

“[Obama] continuously warns of a deteriorating state of chaos in the [Palestinian] territories, when he knows that the only place that truly manages to maintain stability in the Middle East right now is [Israel],” the official said. “Netanyahu said there will no agreement [with the Palestinians] during his term in office.”

A Palestinian state “won’t even happen in our generation,” the official added.” Everyone knows it.”

“They come and accuse us of torpedoing negotiations even though they know that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas himself said no [to a deal], twice — once to then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton in 2011, and once to Secretary of State John Kerry last year.”

The official went on to refer to two “framework documents, designed to jump-start the process” that were accepted by Israel and rejected by the Palestinians, and accused the administration of devoting too much energy to the Palestinian issue, to the detriment of other, more pertinent regional challenges.

“Look at what we did about settlement construction. We took upon ourselves all the restrictions laid forth during the Sharon-Bush era, which allowed for building to accommodate natural population growth, but not for building new settlements,” the official continued, referring to an arrangement in the last decade between then-prime minister Ariel Sharon and president George Bush. “But the [current] administration does not recognize the Sharon-Bush understandings. They’re working according to a ‘no-brick’ policy and it doesn’t make any sense.”

Labels: Abu Mazen, Ariel Sharon, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Bush letter, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Palestinian state

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:02 PM