Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today delivered his much-anticipated foreign policy speech, where he said that a Palestinian state can be born only if they recognize Israel as a Jewish state and if Jerusalem will remain united under Israel’s sovereignty.

Netanyahu said in his speech at Bar Ilan University that the “root of the struggle is the refusal to recognize Israel as the Jewish state”.

“The Initial Arab refusal was to a Jewish state in any location, before Israeli presence in the West Bank,” he emphasised. “The closer we get to an agreement with the Palestinians, the further it is rejected. We tried a withdrawal with an agreement, without one, a partial withdraw and we offered a near-complete withdraw. We uprooted Jewish settlers from their homes, and received a barrage of missiles in return. Sadly, even the Palestinian moderates won’t say the most simple statement – Israel is the Jewish national state, and will remain as such.”

Netanyahu said that to achieve peace, courage and honesty are necessary from both sides. “The Palestinians must say – ‘enough with this conflict. We recognize Israel’s right to exist, and want to live by their side’.”

“A public Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish nation-state is a prerequisite for regional peace,” he added.

The Prime Minister also emphasised the need for a demilitarized Palestinian state. “For peace we must ensure that Palestinians have no weapons and the opportunity to create pacts with hostile forces.”

Netanyahu also said that Jerusalem has to remain united under Israel sovereignty.

As for US President Barack Obama’s infamous Cairo address, Netanyahu said that he embraced his vision, but he made clear that the Holocaust was not the reason for the establishment of the Jewish state, as Obama had imagined.

Nice words from Bibi, indeed. He made clear to the world and to Obama that he is willing to pursue peace with the Arabs, both the ones living in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, but also other Arab/Muslim nations. And he, I’m sure, knows clearly that he will never succeed. Because Arabs will never recognize Israel’s right to exist, let alone it’s Jewishness, and Arabs will never accept Jerusalem being a united capital of Israel. But indeed, without meeting those preconditions, there can’t even be any talk about peace.

Unfortunately Bibi was right when he said that “the closer we get to an agreement, the further it’s rejected”. And it’s always like that. Again, Israel extends an olive branch to Arabs, but nothing will come out of it.

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