“Jews are called Jews because they come from Judea. This is our ancestral homeland,” Netanyahu asserted. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed Israel’s historical connection to Judea and Samaria, stating that “Jews are called Jews because they come from Judea. This is our ancestral homeland.”

Netanyahu made that statement while taking questions from reporters during a joint press conference with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday.

Netanyahu was asked if he came to Washington to tell Trump he was ”backing off the two-state solution.”

Trump himself stated that the two-state solution was not the only possible resolution that would bring peace to the Middle East.

Netanyahu responded by saying that rather than dealing “with labels, he wanted to “deal with substance.”

“So here’s the substance: There are two prerequisites for peace,” he said. “First, the Palestinians must recognize the Jewish state. They have to stop calling for Israel’s destruction. They have to stop educating their people for Israel’s destruction.”

The second prerequisite, he said, is that Israel retain security control on its borders.

“Unfortunately, the Palestinians vehemently reject both prerequisites for peace,” he charged.  “They continue to call for Israel’s destruction — inside their schools, inside their mosques, inside the textbooks.”

The Source of the Conflict

“They even deny our historical connection to our homeland,” Netanyahu stressed.

“You have to ask yourself: Why are Jews called Jews? Well, the Chinese are called Chinese because they come from China.  The Japanese are called Japanese because they come from Japan.  Well, Jews are called Jews because they come from Judea.  This is our ancestral homeland.  Jews are not foreign colonialists in Judea,” he stated.

“The Palestinians not only deny the past, they also poison the present. They name public squares in honor of mass murderers who murdered Israelis, and I have to say also murdered Americans. They pay monthly salaries to the families of murderers, like the family of the terrorist who killed Taylor Force, a wonderful young American, a West Point graduate, who was stabbed to death while visiting Israel,” the premier pointed out.

“This is the source of the conflict — the persistent Palestinian refusal to recognize the Jewish state in any boundary; this persistent rejection. That’s the reason we don’t have peace,” and this must change, Netanyahu demanded.

“But if anyone believes that I, as Prime Minister of Israel, responsible for the security of my country, would blindly walk into a Palestinian terrorist state that seeks the destruction of my country, they’re gravely mistaken,” he concluded.

By: Max Gelber, United with Israel