Washington, June 15: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an interview on NBC “Today” on Monday, said he believes he and President Barack Obama can find “common ground” on the issue of Israeli settlement expansion.
In a speech on Sunday, Netanyahu said he made it clear that Israel would not build new settlements, “and that I would not expropriate land for additional building in existing settlements.” The prime minister said he has been discussing this issue with U.S. special Mideast envoy George Mitchell, and that he would continue those talks with Mitchell soon in Europe.
“I think President Obama and I are trying to reach a common understanding of this, and I hope, with good will — and certainly we have good will, and I am sure the President has that too — I think we will find such common ground, ” Netanyahu said.
The United States opposes any expansion of Israeli settlements, including for “natural growth,” which the Israeli government favors.
” … I share the President’s view to try to start a new beginning here in the Middle East,” Netanyahu said. “I called on all the Arab leaders to meet with me. I said I am willing to come to Damascus and to Riyadh and Beirut, and frankly I hope they would come to Jerusalem. But I would meet them anywhere at any time, and the same is true for the Palestinian leaders.” In endorsing the creation of an independent Palestinian state for the first time, Netanyahu defended his condition that such a new state must be demilitarized — a view the Palestinians already rejected.
“Palestinians have to recognize the Jewish state, and Israel has a right to expect that this state next to them, a Palestinian state, will be a demilitarized one, and these are things that I think can lay the groundwork for a future peace agreement,” Netanyahu said.
Israel is next to an Iranian-supported enclave in Gaza, Netanyahu said, and in the nearly four years since Israel withdrew from that land, some 7,000 rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza, he said. This is the reason a demilitarized Palestinian state is supported by Israelis as a requirement for peace, he said.
–Agencies