PM: Those discussing post-Netanyahu era are referring to one with Palestinian state

Taking questions, Netanyahu is asked about an NBC report that the US is preparing for a Palestinian state the “day after” his tenure.

He says that such a day would be one that would include the establishment of a Palestinian state, which he is determined to block.

“Whoever is talking about the ‘day after Netanyahu’,” he says, “is essentially talking about the establishment of a Palestinian state with the Palestinian Authority.”

The decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he says, are “not about the absence of a state, a Palestinian state, but rather about the existence of a state, a Jewish state. All territory we evacuate, we get terror, terrible terror against us,” he says, citing Gaza, southern Lebanon and parts of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).

He adds that most Israeli citizens are opposed to the establishment of a Palestinian state as well.

In any future arrangement, or in the absence of an arrangement, he says, Israel must maintain “security control” of all territory west of the Jordan River — meaning, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. “That is a vital condition.”

“So it contradicts with the idea of sovereignty [for the Palestinians]. What can you do? I tell this truth to our American friends, and I also stopped the attempt to impose on us a reality that would harm Israel’s security,” Netanyahu says. He says a prime minister in Israel has to be capable of saying “no when it’s necessary, and yes when it’s possible. That’s how I behave.”

It didn’t prevent Israel’s accords with four Arab states, he says. And he promises that this will not prevent Israel from expanding the circle of peace to more Arab countries, “along with our American friends.”

Saudi Arabian officials have reiterated as recently as today, however, that normalization with Israel will be contingent on the creation of a path toward a Palestinian state.