Netanyahu-Blinken meeting/L.A.M
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US Secretary of State Tony Blinken during their meeting in Jerusalem last week that American recognition - direct or indirect - of a Palestinian state "will be a reward for the planners and perpetrators of the October 7 massacre", according to two senior Israeli officials.
Netanyahu and Blinken meeting, February 7, 2024/Government Press Office
why is it important
The Netanyahu government is very concerned that the Biden administration will make a unilateral move to recognize a Palestinian state or allow such a move in the UN institutions and thus reverse a long-standing American policy that supported the establishment of a Palestinian state only as a result of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
The far-right ministers in the government, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gabir, are pushing for a preliminary move in the form of an official cabinet decision according to which the Israeli government's policy is opposition to a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu, who during the last 15 years has expressed himself several times in favor of establishing a Palestinian state, has so far avoided making an official decision opposing a Palestinian state.
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To date, an official decision opposing a Palestinian state has been avoided.
Netanyahu in a speech at Bar Ilan, June 2009/official website, Michael Kramer
In the news center
Two weeks ago it was published in Walla that the American Secretary of State Lincoln instructed the State Department to carry out staff work that would examine the possibility of direct or indirect American recognition of a Palestinian state as part of a political plan for the day after the war in Gaza.
The spokesmen of the US State Department and Blinko himself did not deny the things when asked about them publicly since then and only claimed that it was routine staff work aimed at presenting different policy options.
pushing for a preliminary move of resistance.
Minister Smotrich/image processing, Haim Goldberg/Flash 90
the situation picture
There are several options for American action - the first of which is bilateral US recognition of Palestine as a state.
Another possibility is American avoidance of vetoing a decision in the UN Security Council to accept Palestine as a full member state of the organization.
A third option is American encouragement to countries in Europe and the West to recognize Palestine as a state.
In Lincoln with Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen/Reuters
Behind the Scenes:
Prime Minister Netanyahu raised the issue in a one-on-one conversation with Blinken during the US Secretary of State's last visit to Israel last week.
Senior Israeli officials said that Netanyahu expressed dismay that the US was even considering such a move.
An Israeli senior official said that Netanyahu made it clear to Blinken that such an American move would be an "own goal" and would harm the efforts of the Biden administration to expand the circle of peace and normalization in the region.
"This will be a reward for the Palestinians for the October 7 attack," Netanyahu told Blinken.
The issue also came up during a meeting held last week by National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi with Palestinian Minister Hussein al-Sheikh, who is considered the closest adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The holding of the meeting was reported for the first time by Yaron Avraham in News 12.
A senior Israeli official told Wala that the Negbi told Al-Sheikh that "there is no chance that the war in Gaza will end with the establishment of a Palestinian state."
Hangabi emphasized to the Palestinian official that Israel will not change decades of policy and will reward the perpetrators of the massacre.
"This is not just the Likud government - there was no Palestinian state even under other governments. You should be realistic and set more practical goals for the day after the war," Hanegbi told Al-Sheikh.
The Prime Minister's Office and the US State Department refused to comment.
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Palestinian state