MOSCOW – The Israeli right is not concerned over recent peace overtures by Prime Minister Netanyahu since they will ultimately amount to nothing, Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel says.
At the same time, he tells The Times of Israel, by invoking his desire for a two-state solution, Netanyahu fuels the notion held by many Israelis that Palestinian statehood is inevitable.
Instead, Ariel proposes Israel annex Area C – the part of the West Bank controlled by Israel — and pour NIS 10 billion into the other Palestinian areas to drastically improve the local population’s quality of life.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu visits the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow on Tuesday, June 7, 2016. To his left, in sunglasses, is Minister Uri Ariel. (Haim Zach / GPO)
“I am not worried so much, even though there are surprises in life,” Ariel says, referring to Netanyahu’s recent reiterations of his desire to arrive at a peace agreement with the Palestinians and his partial embrace of the Arab Peace Initiative, which calls for an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines and a “just” and “agreed” solution to the refugee question.
“In the end the Arabs will not agree there is no right of return — they want to return to wherever they want,” Ariel, a member of the right-wing Jewish Home party, said. “In Israel everyone agrees — even the [center-left] Zionist Union, that there will be no right of return. And there are other issues which for them are non-negotiable.”
The full interview with Uri Ariel will be published on The Times of Israel later this evening.
— Raphael Ahren
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Tuesday, June 7, 2016
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