Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defied U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday by submitting a version of Biden’s peace plan to his government, including a Palestinian state imposed from outside, to a vote — and having it rejected unanimously.
Netanyahu acted after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken continued to press for Israel to accept a Palestinian state as the outcome of the war against the Hamas terrorists who began the conflict with a brutal terror attack on Israel on October 7.
The Prime Minister’s Office released the following statement:
The Israeli Government has unanimously approved a declaratory decision regarding Israel’s opposition to international diktats.
The text of the final statement:
1. Israel utterly rejects international diktats regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians. A settlement, if it is to be reached, will come about solely through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions.
2. Israel will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. Such recognition in the wake of the October 7th massacre would be a massive and unprecedented reward to terrorism and would prevent any future peace settlement.
The Biden administration has been obsessed with a Palestinian state since before the conflict, reportedly blocking Saudi-Israeli peace negotiations in September 2023 because the proposed deal did not explicitly call for the creation of a Palestinian state.
Israelis overwhelmingly oppose a Palestinian state — after supporting one a decade ago — because of their experience in suffering rocket attacks and terror attacks from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, which was essentially a Palestinian state in all but name.
Netanyahu said Saturday evening:
I made it clear to the Cabinet and I reiterate it to the world this evening: An arrangement will be achieved only by direct negotiations between the parties, without pre-conditions. Under my leadership, Israel will continue to strongly oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. And when do they want to give such unilateral recognition? After the terrible massacre of October 7. There can be no greater and unprecedented prize to terrorism, which will also prevent any future peace agreement.
The Biden administration is pushing a proposal to use hostage negotiations with Hamas to stop the war and bring about a broader Israeli-Arab peace deal that includes a Palestinian state as its centerpiece.
The idea hearkens back to conventional wisdom in Washington before President Donald Trump, when it was assumed that peace between Israel and the Arab states depended on resolving the Palestinian issue first. Trump showed the opposite in the Abraham Accords, a deal between Israel and several Arab states that did not include a Palestinian state and did not place the Palestinian issue first. The Biden administration has not added a single country to the Abraham Accords since taking office in 2021.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
