Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu (Archive)
Photo: Haim Tzach
Bibi: I prefer Palestinian workers over Asians
Likud chairman says he prefers Palestinian laborers that do not become a burden on Israel; tells American journalists Israel not interested in remaining in Palestinian cities
Likud chairman, MK Benjamin Netanyahu, met on Tuesday with American journalists, fellows of the Nieman Foundation in Harvard University, who are currently visiting Israel.
Bibi told the reporters that he always preferred Palestinian workers, who at the end of the day return to their homes in the territories, over the Asians, who stay here and become a burden on Israel's social system.
Speaking about the Palestinian conflict, Netanyahu said Israel is not interested in the Palestinian cities and that it would cede control over them in the future. The Palestinians have a leadership problem and no young, responsible leadership seems to be emerging there, he said. The clusters of power that consolidated during Yasser Arafat's rule remain unchanged under Mahmoud Abbas' regime, Bibi stated, saying nothing stands to change now that Hamas is in power.
The Palestinian Authority is suffering from unbearable economic corruption, characteristic of Arab regimes, and without solving this problem the Palestinians continue being the main victims, Bibi explained.
'Neighbors won't survive nuclear Iran'
Netanyahu also discussed the global war on terror and said that the West has no understanding of radical Islam, which destabilizes the foundations of the free world and which will use weapons of mass destruction once it obtains them.
Hunger and lack of human rights are not the motives for violence and terror, but rather brainwashing and hatred for the West and its values, he said. They do not hate the West because of Israel, Bibi stated.
Referring to the Iranian issue, Bibi said that the international picture will change dramatically once Iran manages to build a nuclear bomb, and that Iraq, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia will not survive a nuclear Iran. He added that only international sanctions and a deterrent NATO force can bring about change in the Islamic republic.
