Netanyahu says ‘Issue of Jerusalem and Temple Mount unsolvable’

I24 NEWS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a sore throat, as anyone following his US visit will notice, and he admitted that much at the beginning of an address at what must be one of the most challenging venues for him – the Center of American Progress, a liberal left-leaning think tank in Washington. In the wake of the fierce Israeli battle against the Iran nuclear deal and constant clashes with the administration, Netanyahu’s decision to reach out to the Democrat party is perceived as an attempt to restore bipartisanship. However, not everyone on the liberal side of Washington agreed; ahead of Netanyahu’s address many voices criticized his invitation, saying he should not be let in the door after the way he has treated President Barack Obama’s administration in recent months.

‘Israel is misunderstood,’ Netanyahu said again and again, explaining that his controversial election-day comments about the Arab voters were a misunderstanding as well. ‘It was a misstatement, but I corrected it,’ he told the progressive listeners, and he used the opportunity to try and explain his positions – and misconceptions among liberal Americans. One of the most burning issues, for this audience, was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Netanyahu was asked about his policy repeatedly during the question and answer sessions. ‘It’s not about territorial compromise,’ Netanyahu said, ‘it’s about mutual recognition, about the Palestinians recognizing Israel as a Jewish state – and security arrangements. You should invite [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas here, I am willing to enter talks without any preconditions, but he won’t.’

Netanyahu addressed the settlement expansion issue, one of the thorns in the side of Democrat supporters of Israel, and pointed to what he called the facts. ‘There have been no new settlements built in the past years, it’s all expansion of existing settlements. My government has built 1,500 units a year – this is less than my predecessors – during the Barak, Sharon, Olmert governments. The growth in the settlements does not materially affect the potential for peace. The settlement freeze didn’t help, Abbas didn’t come to the table.’ When asked if he had a plan B, he had no answer, he didn’t rule out a unilateral solution but repeated his provisions about security being a major demand for any agreement and required ‘greater international understanding.’ ‘A future deal with the Palestinians that any deal must ensure Israel can defend itself by itself’. The issue of Jerusalem and Temple Mount is ‘insolvable,’ he added, and will have to stay under Israeli control.

‘A unilateral move could be possible requiring the international community to understand Israel’s security needs,’ he added.

Asked about the Duma attack and the fact that no one has been indicted, Netanyahu denied that settler violence hasn’t been prosecuted and that Israel has issued administrative detentions to Jewish extremists. ‘It will take time and we will get them, I am much more concerned how we get to the Palestinian mind and make them accept the idea that we will have to live side by side, I don’t think their political leadership is ready to embrace this yet.’ He also attacked ‘there is no symmetry in Israeli and Palestinian societies, we do not send our children to suicide kindergartens. There is a difference in values – they glorify terrorists, we don’t.’