Netanyahu: We want peace, we’re working toward regional effort

At a dinner with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Netanyahu says he is committed to peace, citing his own experiences in battle, though without mentioning a two-state solution.

“I want to assure you that I am committed to peace and the people of Israel yearn for peace, all of us. We pray for peace because we have experienced, as you said, the cost of war, we lost loved ones. I myself was wounded in battle. Peace is better. Infinitely better. And I believe that the key to peace is the abandonment of the goal of liquidating people, accepting them, and working out the various conflicts,” he says.

Netanyahu was wounded during a rescue operation on a hijacked flight in 1972, when he was shot in the arm, apparently the result of friendly fire.

In apparent reference to efforts to cobble together a regional peace initiative involving Gulf states, Netanyahu also says Israel is expending considerable efforts toward that goal.

“I think there’s an opportunity to do this today because I sense a great change in the Arab world in many Arab countries, and I hope, as we discussed earlier, to be able to use that newfound attitude towards Israel to help to solve the Palestinian Israeli conflict as well. This is something that we’re making a lot of efforts to, most of them are, so we say, not publicized, not public,” he adds.