Netanyahu says he’ll ‘work out a peace’ with moderate Palestinians, but they won’t have the power to threaten Israel

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump is asked whether a two-state solution is possible, but cedes the floor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to answer.

“I think Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves, but none of the powers to threaten us,” Netanyahu says in a response he has given countless times before over the years.

“That means that certain powers, like overall security, will always remain in our hands,” the Israeli premier continues.

“No one in Israel will agree to anything else, because we don’t commit suicide,” Netanyahu asserts.

“We want life. We cherish life for ourselves, for our neighbors, and I think we can work out a peace between us and the entire Middle East with President Trump’s leadership,” he continues. “By working together, I think we can establish a very, very broad peace that will include all our neighbors.”

He claims that some people said the Palestinians had a state before the onslaught of October 7, 2023 — “a Hamas state in Gaza. Look what they did with it. They didn’t build it up. They built down into bunkers, into terror tunnels, after which they massacred our people.” He says that “another” Palestinian state would similarly serve as a “platform to destroy Israel.”

“We’ll work out a peace with our Palestinian neighbors — those who don’t want to destroy us. And we’ll work out a peace in which our security, the sovereign power of security, always remains in our hands,” Netanyahu asserts.

“Now people will say, ‘It’s not a complete state, it’s not a state’… We don’t care,” he says.

“We vowed ‘Never again.’ Never again is now. It’s not going to happen again.”