Ministers slam idea of recognizing Palestinian statehood, say the risk to Israel’s existence is not worth normalization

Israel’s cabinet has unanimously endorsed a resolution that would reject any “international diktat” that would seek to impose a solution.

“Israel categorically rejects international diktats around a permanent settlement with the Palestinians,” reads the cabinet decision. “A settlement, if it is achieved, will come about only through direct negotiations between the sides, with no preconditions.”

“Israel will continue to oppose a unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state,” the decision continues. After October 7, such a move would be a “massive, unprecedented prize for terror” that would prevent any future peace deal, it adds.

According to Ynet, Netanyahu orchestrated the statement rejecting unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state in concert with War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz and Gideon Sa’ar, a Likud cabinet minister. The Washington Post last week reported that the Biden Administration is preparing, together with Arab states, to impose the creation of “Palestine” on Israel, against its will, in a wholesale betrayal of the longstanding US-Israel alliance, and in opposition to the Oslo Accords, to which the US is signatory.

Sa’ar called the reported US proposal to place a “firm timeline” on the creation of a Palestinian state “would be like the sacrificing of Czechoslovakia in 1938,” referring to the Nazi appeasement strategy, Ynet reported. “The claims that a Palestinian state will bring us security is the biggest absurdity of all,” he said.

Energy Minister Eli Cohen, just rotated out as foreign minister, told Army Radio that normalization with Arab states is not worth the risk of Palestinians having a country that could threaten Israel. “If the price of expanding peace agreements is a Palestinian state, then I’ll give up on the peace agreements,” he said.