‘Settlements’ not the core of the conflict — PM

The prime minister says that IS and the Assad regime are both “bad” and therefore Israel has chosen not to intervene in the civil war.

Netanyahu says that Israel has not intervened in Syria, with two exceptions: humanitarian aid, and to thwart Hezbollah weapon transfers.

“Israeli policy will continue along the lines of what I just outlined,” he stresses.

“The civilized countries have to make common cause to contain, and ultimately defeat, militant Islam,” he says. Netanyahu says that just as Nazism was defeated, so too radical Islam will be destroyed.

He says that with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict there is a “misunderstanding” about it. He says settlements are “not the core of the conflict.” In Gaza, “nothing changed” when we “took out all the settlements.” In Gaza, “we got the worse terror possible,” rather than peace.

“In order for us to ensure that this doesn’t happen again, we have to address the root” of the conflict, he says, adding that “the Palestinians have not yet been willing to cross that emotional bridge of… not a state next to Israel, but a state instead of Israel.”

Both Hamas and the PA refuse to see that in a final peace agreement they must recognize the Jewish state, and “they persistently refuse to do so,” and “in any boundary.”

“That was and remains the core the conflict.”

He quotes Abbas condemning the occupation of Palestinian lands for 67 years — from 1948 — as proof the Palestinians have not given up the dream of obtaining Israeli territory pre-1967.

He says it’s “childish, and irrelevant” to say settlements are core of the conflict. The settlement issue must be resolved, but it’s not the main issue, he says.

Netanyahu says he hasn’t given up hope for peace.