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Date Posted: 2014-04-10 09:24:06
Economics Minister and Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett has continued his calls to annex parts of Judea and Samaria, in response to the repeated failure of peace talks with the Palestinian Authority.
Following a letter yesterday to Prime Minister Netanyahu, in which he urged the PM implement his "Plan B" alternative to a "two-state solution" with the PA, Bennett took his message to the international media last night, in an interview with CNN.
Dismissing suggestions that Israel was responsible for the collapse of peace talks by building homes in Jerusalem, Bennett pointed out that the talks had already ground to a halt after PA leader Mahmoud Abbas refused to even recognize Israel's existence as the nation-state of the Jewish people, while simultaneously demanding Israeli recognition of a "Palestinian homeland."
"The reality... is that the era of these negotiations is over - it's time for plan B... a new approach," he said. "The approach that we've been applying for 20 years now clearly has reached its end."
Bennett rejected out of hand calls for Israel to freeze construction in Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem, as part of proposals to eventually partition the city between the Jewish state and a future "Palestinian state".
"Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital for just about 3,000 years, and just like I would never suggest to freeze building in London, where you're sitting" Israel should not be expected to "freeze our own building in our own state", he said.
Responding to his interviewer's claim that "there has been Palestinian life in Jerusalem for thousands of years," he retorted: "You're talking about a Palestinian presence? Has there ever been a Palestinian state? Show me what its flag was, show me what its anthem was, show me who its leader is - show me anything that mentions the word 'Palestinians' more than 65 or 80 years ago. CLICK HERE TO KEEP READING
