Benjamin Netanyahu to Abbas: If settlements didn’t exist, would you recognize a Jewish state?
The Palestinians must exorcise the demon of wanting to destroy the Jewish state, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told visiting Italian President Sergio Mattarella when the two met in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
“I [have] turned not only to Hamas but to [Palestinian Authority] President [Mahmoud] Abbas, and I said, ‘Would you recognize a Jewish state, assuming we solve the settlement problem?’” Netanyahu said. “And they won’t, because the real settlement issues are the settlements of Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Haifa, Acre.”