On eve of meeting with Kerry, Netanyahu says efforts to impose solution on Israel will fail

PM Netanyahu says withdrawing to pre-1967 lines within two years is not in the cards.

TJP

Attempts to get the UN Security Council to force Israel to withdraw to the 1967 lines within two years will fail, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting.

Netanyahu’s comments came a day before he is scheduled to fly to Rome to meet US Secretary of State John Kerry and discuss both the resolution the Palestinians plan on taking to the UN Security Council in the near future calling for a full Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines in two years, as well as a more moderate French proposal being drawn up together with the Germans and the British.

Kerry is scheduled to meet shortly after his arrival in Rome Sunday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Rome to discuss the various proposals. Following his meeting with Netanyahu, Kerry is scheduled to fly to London where he will meet on the proposals both with a Palestinian delegation, and a delegation of foreign ministers from the Arab League.

Netanyahu, who will also meet during his one-day trip to Rome with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, said he will tell both Kerry and Renzi that Israel “stands as a solitary island against the waves of Islamic extremism that are washing over the entire Middle East. Until now we have successfully withstood and repelled these attacks and now we also stand against the possibility of a diplomatic assault, i.e. an attempt to compel us – by means of UN decisions – to withdraw to the 1967 lines within two years.”

Such a development, he said, would lead to bringing “Islamic extremists to the suburbs of Tel Aviv and to the heart of Jerusalem. We will not allow this. We will strongly and responsibly rebuff this. Let there be no doubt, this will be rejected.”