Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government unanimously approved a measure declaring that the country "outright rejects" any attempts by foreign powers to create a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu announced the move at the start of a cabinet meeting Sunday morning. It comes as various forces at the U.N. and even President Biden's administration have pushed Israel to accept a two-state solution after the war against Hamas in Gaza.
"In light of the talk recently heard in the international community about an attempt to unilaterally impose a Palestinian state on Israel, I am bringing today a declarative decision on this issue for the approval of the government. I am sure it will be widely accepted," Netanyahu told the cabinet in Hebrew.
"Israel outright rejects international dictates regarding the permanent settlement with the Palestinians," the declaration said. "Such an arrangement will be reached only through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions. Israel will continue to oppose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. Such a recognition, following the massacre of October 7, will reward the terrorism, a reward like no other, and will prevent any future peace settlement."
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The statement echoes a message Netanyahu personally delivered to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week, telling the top Biden administration official that direct or even indirect recognition "would be a prize for those who planned and orchestrated the Oct. 7 massacre."
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Biden and other U.S. officials have repeatedly said that Israel's war against Hamas should end with a two-state solution, implying that the U.S. would recognize a Palestinian state.
Israel has made repeated efforts to negotiate a peace deal and two-state solution with Palestinian and Arab leaders over the past 75 years, but each offer has been rejected, including the initial 1947 UN partition plan that led to Israel's establishment, and Israeli offers in 2000 and 2008 that would have recognized a Palestinian state.
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"I do not think a two-state solution is possible, and, even if possible, it is not advisable. For more than 50 years, hundreds of self-proclaimed ‘peacemakers,’ led by the United States, have attempted to coerce Israel and the Palestinians into a two-state solution," former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told Fox News Digital last month.
Friedman, who served as the U.S. ambassador under former President Trump, said, "The efforts repeatedly fail regardless of who’s in charge and the reasons are profound and immutable: 1) the Palestinians are not willing to accept a Jewish State; 2) the likelihood of a Palestinian state becoming a terror state is extremely high, presenting an existential threat to Israel; and 3) the West Bank (referred to by Biblical adherents as Judea and Samaria) is biblical Israel and, absent Israeli control, hundreds of Jewish and Christian holy sites will be destroyed."
Fox News' Yael Rotem-Kuriel, Yonat Friling, and Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report.
