Netanyahu Says He’s ‘Proud’ of Preventing a Palestinian State

Israeli officials have rejected the idea of a two-state solution after the war

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that he’s “proud” of preventing the creation of a Palestinian state.

“I’m proud that I prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state because today everybody understands what that Palestinian state could have been, now that we’ve seen the little Palestinian state in Gaza,” Netanyahu said.

The Israeli leader has come under intense domestic criticism due to his strategy of helping prop up Hamas in Gaza to prevent a Palestinian state and the intelligence failure that allowed the October 7 attack on southern Israel to happen. In the face of the pressure, Netanyahu has reportedly pitched himself to fellow Likud party members as the only one who can prevent a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu also said he would “not let the State of Israel go back to the fateful mistake of Oslo,” referring to the 1993 Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), which established the Palestinian Authority (PA) and were meant to pave the way to a lasting peace deal.

The comments from Netanyahu come as Biden administration officials continue to insist a two-state solution must be reached after the Gaza war despite clear opposition among Israeli officials. Tzipi Hotovely, the Israeli ambassador to the UK, told Sky News last week that there was “absolutely no” chance of a two-state solution.

The Biden administration has said it wants the PA to take over Gaza, an idea Netanyahu has outright rejected. The PA is also extremely unpopular among Palestinians, as a recent poll found nearly 90% of Palestinians want PA President Mahmoud Abbas to resign.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.