Israel must keep West Bank military control under any deal: Netanyahu
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the Tel Aviv regime should maintain its military occupation of the West Bank under any agreement to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians.
“The idea that we can give up territory and achieve peace is not right. In order to assure our existence, we need to have military and security control over all of the territory west of the Jordan [River],” Netanyahu told Israel’s Army Radio on Tuesday.
Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds during the Six Day War in 1967. It later annexed East Jerusalem al-Quds in a move not recognized by the international community.
In November 1967, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 242, under which Israel is required to withdraw from all territories seized in the war.
Palestinian officials have repeatedly said that they want the resolution of the decades-long conflict with Israel based on the so-called two-state solution along pre-1967 boundaries.
Elsewhere in his comments, Netanyahu claimed that the root cause of the conflict with the Palestinians lies not in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, but rather the “continued refusal by the Palestinians to recognize Israel.”
He further noted that the Palestinians are stuck in their attitude of “not setting up a state but rather negating the existence of” Israel.
However, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said recently that the Palestinians had problem “with the occupation and settlements and the failure of Israel to recognize the state of Palestine ...The problem is not between us and Judaism, it is between us and occupation.”
Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump traveled to the occupied territories and met with Netanyahu and Abbas amid Washington’s recent move to drop the US commitment to the two-state solution.
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Trump said both Netanyahu and Abbas had “assured” him of their willingness to “reach for peace.”
Meanwhile, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley is set make a visit to the occupied territories between June 7 and June 9, where she is expected to hold meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state in the territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem al-Quds, and the Gaza Strip, with East al-Quds as its capital.
However, Israel's expansion of settlements in occupied lands has dealt a serious blow to Palestinian hopes to establish an independent state.
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