Zionist Union says rejection of ‘Bar-Ilan Bill’ shows Likud against two states

The Zionist Union party says in a statement that the Knesset plenum’s rejection of a bill that would call on the government to adopt the principles laid out by Netanyahu in his Bar-Ilan speech shows that the “extreme right and extreme left in the country will make Israel a bi-national state.”

The bill, submitted by Yoel Hasson, an MK in Labor, one of the two parties comprising Zionist Union, calls on the government to adopt the recognition of a future Palestinian state alongside the Jewish State, the central point of a landmark speech made by Netanyahu in June 2009.

At the time the speech was seen to mark a softening of Netanyahu’s position on the idea of Palestinian statehood.

Zionist Union says that “the fact that Likud MKs and Netanyahu’s natural partners voted against the comments by the prime minister and chairman of Likud himself” shows that the prime minister has lost his capability to control members of his own coalition.

“They were joined by Meretz voters who chose not to support a diplomatic solution that will bring a separation from the Palestinians,” the statement continues, adding that Netanyahu reiterated his commitment to a two-state solution only recently at the UN.

“Today it is clearer than ever,” the statement says, “that the radical right and left will turn this country to a bi-national state.”