Netanyahu: Israel will not be a binational state
'In order to have peace, the other side must decide it too wants peace,' prime minister says in response to Kerry, who urged Israel and the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Sunday that "Israel will not be a binational state," following a warning from US Secretary of State John Kerry that this would be the alternative to a peace accord.
"In order to have peace, the other side must decide it too wants peace," the prime minister said at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting.
"Unfortunately, this is what we see: Primarily, the incitement in the Palestinian Authority continues. Then I see the chief Palestinian negotiator visiting the family of a terrorist who tried to murder Jews. Not only is he not condemning, he's going to offer his condolences," Netanyahu went on to say, referring to senior PLO official Saeb Erekat's visit to the home of a Palestinian security officer who wounded an Israeli civilian and an IDF soldier in a shooting attack on Thursday.
Speaking at the Brooking Institute's Saban Forum on Saturday night, Kerry warned Israel about the dangers of the possible collapse of the Palestinian Authority, saying it would lead to a situation that would threaten the security of Israel and the Palestinian people.
If the Palestinian Authority were to disintegrate, Kerry said, Israel would be forced to assume all governance in the West Bank and potentially accept a one-state solution that would compromise Israel's future as a democratic, Jewish state.
He added that without a two-state solution, Israel would be forced into an unsustainable position of perpetual occupation that would be rejected not least by the Palestinian but by most, if not all, of the international community.
"The one-state solution is no solution at all for a secure, Jewish, democratic Israel living in peace, it is simply not a viable option," Kerry said.
Netanyahu also slammed comments made by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, who denounced the almost daily Palestinian knife, gun or car-ramming attacks but urged Israel to avoid overkill.
"The response must not be of the kind - and this is what I say in other situations where the response is such that it results in extra-judicial executions or is disproportionate in that the number of people killed on that side exceeds the original number of deaths many times over," Wallstrom said.
"I condemn the statements, the scandalous statements, made by the foreign minister of Sweden," Netanyahu said.
"It seems she expects Israel's citizens to bare their throats to those trying to stab them. This will not happen, and we will continue to protect the lives of Israel's citizens."
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said in a radio interview that she and Netanyahu, who also functions as foreign minister, would convene a meeting on Sunday to decide what she anticipated would be a "sharp response" to Wallstrom's comments.
Hotovely hinted at a possible exclusion of the Swedish government from Israeli efforts to revive peacemaking efforts with the Palestinians that have been stalled since early 2014.
"Sweden has crossed all red lines in relations with Israel," Hotovely told Army Radio. "This is defamation of Israel and the statements are distancing Sweden from the ranks of enlightened nations that can take part in the dialogue about rights in the region."
A spokesman for Sweden's Foreign Ministry on Sunday denied that Wallstrom had accused Israel of conducting extra-judicial executions, describing her remarks as "a general statement".
Reuters contributed this report.
