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The root of the Palestinians’ conflict with Israel is their unwillingness to recognize a Jewish state in any form, Netanyahu stated.
By: United with Israel Staff
The reason there is no peace in between Israel and the Arabs is because of the Palestinians’ persistent rejection of a Jewish state, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained.
Addressing the American Jewish Congress (AJC) Global Forum at the Jerusalem International Convention Center on Sunday, Netanyahu said, “I think that the problem we face is this: The reason we don’t have peace is not because of the absence of a Palestinian state. It’s been offered many, many times, and it’s been rejected many, many times because it always had a condition: no Jewish state.”
Describing a utopian scenario, Netanyahu told attendees to “imagine what would happen if [Palestinian] President [Mahmoud] Abbas would not invest hundreds of millions of dollars each year in paying terrorists and the families of terrorists who murdered innocent people. Imagine that he invested this [money] in the project of peace. Imagine that they invested it in Ramallah, or for that matter in Gaza. Imagine what this would do.”
Hamas has invested some $100 million in building its terror infrastructure in Gaza, while the Palestinian Authority, headed by Abbas, has spent $1 billion paying stipends to terrorists wounded, killed or incarcerated in Israel, in the past four years alone.
The payments are written into PA law, which declares that the prisoners, who are convicted of security offenses and acts of terrorism, are “a fighting sector and an integral part of Arab Palestinian society.” The law guarantees “the financial rights of the prisoner and his family.”
Prisoners consequently receive a significant payment while incarcerated, as well as jobs or salaries upon their release. The time they served behind bars also counts toward their seniority in PA institutions.
‘It Could Change the World’
“I think it would change the world,” Netanyahu stated. “The Palestinians could aspire to become scientists and doctors.”
However, instead of investing in their future, the Palestinians “erect statues to mass murderers,” Netanyahu charged, referring to Palestinian culture’s glorification of terrorists.
“That’s what they have. Do you see that here? Anywhere? No. It’s never been about a Palestinian state. It’s always been about the Jewish state. Recognize the Jewish state. Stop paying terrorists. And invest in peace,” Netanyahu concluded.
Netanyahu has in the past asserted several times that the root of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the refusal by the Palestinians to recognize the Jewish state, within any borders.
“It was and remains the heart of this conflict, and until we recognize this and tell the nations of the world, ‘Here, this is the root of the conflict, that and the incitement that accompanies it,’ without diagnoses, without prognoses, there will be no cure, no relief,” he explained in July 2016.
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