Senior MK says Netanyahu vowed to never recognize Palestinian state

Coalition whip Miki Zohar says on Twitter that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised his Likud faction Monday that no government he leads will ever recognize a Palestinian state, even in principle.

Likud MK Miki Zohar at the Knesset, on September 9, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90)

“We will never recognize a Palestinian state!” he tweets.

He says the Trump plan “which will allow the start of extending sovereignty over all settlements without removing one Jew from his home and a series of more sovereignties by keeping the roads, is a historic plan and an opportunity that cannot be missed!”

There is no confirmation from Netanyahu, but the Yesha settlement council, which is opposed to the Trump plan, says it “welcomes the shift in Netanyahu’s stance.”

Netanyahu initially embraced the two-state solution at the start of his term in 2009, but has since shied from publicly endorsing anything more than a vague “state-minus” for the Palestinians.