Exclusive: Israeli Minister Warns Palestinian State Would Spell Israel’s ‘Destruction’ – Biden’s Pressure ‘Plain Stupidity’

A Palestinian state would spell Israel’s “destruction” and the Biden administration’s repeated pressuring of Israel to accept one is “plain stupidity,” according to Religious Zionism Knesset member Simcha Rothman, who described Hamas as a “terror cartel” that exports terrorism globally, insisting that Israel must defeat the radical Gaza-based Islamist terrorist group to “protect its own security and the security of the world.” 

Speaking with Breitbart News at an Israel Heritage Foundation (IHF) event in Israel this week, Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee Chairman Simcha Rothman of Israel’s Religious Zionist party addressed the possible formation of a Palestinian state following the completion of the current Gaza war.

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Highlighting the widespread view that such a state would serve as an “enormous reward” for terror and “endanger Israel’s very existence,” Rothman noted that while Israel’s right-wing factions, including parties like his own, have held such a view for years, Israelis across the political spectrum continue to reach the same conclusion.

“Just three months ago, 99 Knesset members out of 120 voted that trying to impose a Palestinian state now would be a huge mistake,” he said, emphasizing that “the vast majority of the people of Israel say that a Palestinian state equals the destruction of the State of Israel.” 

“The fact that people try to say that this view is only that of the Religious Zionist party, is a lie,” he added. 

According to Rothman, the October 7 attacks changed the perception of many of those living in Israel.

“Though this has been my party’s view for many, many years, most Israelis [only fully] understood it immediately on October 7,” he explained, because the brutal massacre was “the [perfect] example” of what happens when Palestinians are granted a state.

“In Gaza, they had all the independence we can think of; they could do whatever they wanted. They got billions [from various countries, and] in US taxpayer money in aid paid to UNRWA, and through other NGOs,” he continued. “What did they do with all these funds? Did they make Gaza into the Singapore of the Middle East? No, they used it for rockets, for weapons, for tunnels, and for terror operatives.”

“That’s what happens when you give them a state,” he added.

He then blasted the notion that the solution to Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians is to “repeat the same exact thing that has been done,” calling such a strategy “just plain stupidity,” while noting that that is exactly what the Biden administration has “pressured Israel to do over and over and over again.” 

“We know that the vast majority of the public in the United States support Israel over Hamas,” he stated, expressing hope that the majority’s views will be heeded by the State Department.

He also explained why it is critical that Israel fully defeat Hamas in Gaza and not allow it to retain any power post-war.

“We have to understand that Hamas is a terror cartel that exports terror all around the world,” he said, warning that it could potentially be found in a “mosque near you” in the United States, and worldwide.

“The Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas — it’s all part of the same conglomerate of terror,” he elaborated.

According to Rothman, if allowed to survive, Hamas, along with its ideology and tactics, would flourish and spread because “if you have a successful franchise, you expand it.” 

If Hamas would [prove to] be a successful franchise; having attacked and killed Israelis, invaded Israel and survived to see the next day, survived and became stronger, survived and got a huge reward from the United States — like a Palestinian state; if that would be the case, then the franchise and the terror cartel will expand; and this terror, terrorist ideology and jihadist idea to take over the world — you will find it imported [through] your border from Mexico to Texas or any other state in the US. 

“That’s why Israel defeating Hamas is essential, not only for the security of Israel, which is of course essential, but also for the security of the world,” he concluded.

Rothman’s remarks follow a speech he delivered to a visiting IHF delegation currently visiting Israel to express solidarity with Jewish state. The mission, led by Executive Director Rabbi David Katz and Executive Vice President Dr. Joseph Frager, visited the Gaza periphery and the site of the Nova music festival where hundreds of innocent attendees were killed. The delegation included former U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland Edward McMullan, and Holocaust survivor and IHF Honorary President Jerry Wartski.

President Biden has repeatedly expressed frustration over Israel’s right-wing parties, and the Religious Zionism faction in particular, viewing them as an obstacle to his vision for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Meanwhile, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads the Religious Zionism party, has blasted the Biden administration for “pushing Israel towards suicide for years” by advocating for a “two-state solution.”

The largely failed two-state solution for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — vehemently rejected by both sides — is still being pushed by President Biden, who insists that it is the “only way” to ensure long-term security for both Israelis and Palestinians in a new post-Hamas Gaza.

The so-called two-state solution — which calls for the creation of a Palestinian state, ostensibly in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and some eastern sections of Jerusalem, in exchange for the terror-supporting Palestinian Authority ending its conflict with Israel and living at peace with the Jewish state — has long proved to be an abject failure.

Despite the numerous proposals, every Israeli attempt to offer land concessions for a Palestinian state has been met with terror waves. After years of failed negotiations and Israel’s disastrous evacuation of the Gaza Strip, which resulted in Hamas’s takeover of that territory and repeated rocket attacks from there, a growing share of Israelis have grown more skeptical of a two-state solution, largely rejecting any withdrawal from the West Bank, according to a Pew Research Center survey which took place prior to October 7, 2023. 

Since the October 7 massacre, Israelis — even more so — overwhelmingly reject a two-state solution. Additionally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that he will not allow a Palestinian state as long as he remains in office.

In contrast with the Biden administration’s policies, President Trump did not unequivocally endorse the two-state solution, saying he was also open to a one-state solution — presumably meaning Israeli annexation of the West Bank — and that he would accept whatever solution Israelis and Palestinians themselves chose. In addition, the Trump administration cut aid to the Palestinians over its boycott of the U.S., as well as its so-called pay-for-slay scheme, and closed the Palestinian mission in Washington, expelling the Palestinian Ambassador to the U.S., Hussam Zomlot.

In November, Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders caused an uproar after declaring that the country of Jordan should be considered the true national homeland for the Palestinian people,  given that it has a majority Palestinian population and integrating Palestinians into Jordan could lead to a more stable regional situation, as the Hashemite Kingdom has successfully integrated Palestinian refugees.

Previously, former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson suggested the creation of a Palestinian state in Egypt in order to distance Israel from threats posed by it.

President Biden’s insistence stands despite the recent October 7 massacre, which saw the Hamas terrorist group perpetrate the deadliest attack against Jewish people since the Nazi Holocaust. The massacre saw the torture, rape, execution, immolation, and abduction of hundreds of Israeli civilians, as well as widespread Palestinian support for it.

The large-scale slaughter, which drew parallels to scenes from the Holocaust, resulted in roughly 1,200 dead inside the Jewish state, over 4,800 wounded, and at least 241 hostages of all ages taken — of which nearly 140 remain in Gaza.

The vast majority of the victims are civilians and include dozens of American citizens.

In addition, Republican officials continue to lambaste the Biden administration for withholding crucial ammunition from Israel in its war on the Hamas terror group, accusing the president of “carrying water for the pro-Hamas mob” to “appease his radical anti-Semitic base” and the Democrat party’s “pro-Hamas wing” for his own personal political gain.

Critics of Biden’s decision have argued that withholding weapons that Congress has already authorized, absent any finding of human rights violations by Israel, is unconstitutional and violates the Impoundment Control Act of 1974.

Some Republicans have even drafted impeachment articles against the president, citing the abandonment of a key U.S. ally and a potential weakening of U.S. foreign policy stance.

According to former President Donald Trump, President Biden “has totally abandoned Israel.”

On Wednesday, Hamas celebrated as Ireland, Norway, and Spain announced that they would recognize a Palestinian state in the wake of the October 7 terror attacks against Israel, prompting Israel to recall its ambassadors from all three.