BICOM

Continuing his Washington DC trip with visits to think-tanks and NGOs, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that a unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank was possible, while emphasising that a negotiated solution was still the best option.

Speaking at a question-and-answer session at the Democrat-affiliated Center for American Progress, Mr Netanyahu was asked how he would prevent Israel from becoming a bi-national state in the absence of negotiations. In the course of his response, he said,“Unilateralism…I suppose that’s possible too, but it would have to meet Israeli security criteria and that would also require broader international understanding than exists.” However, he stressed that “Unilateralism works less well than a negotiated solution.”

At the same event, Mr Netanyahu was challenged over comments he made during the March 2015 election about Israeli Arabs voting. He apologised for the comments, saying “I think that this statement, as it was said, was wrong,” and recommitted to equality and development for Israeli Arabs, saying “It comes also from a political philosophy that I follow, especially the teachings of Ze’ev Jabotinsky [the founder of Israel’s Revisionist movement], who believed in having an egalitarian state.”

Speaking earlier at the AGM of the Jewish Federations of North America, Mr Netanyahu praised the US-Israel relationship and President Barack Obama personally, while stressing his belief that “The reason we don’t have peace is the persistent Palestinian refusal to recognise the Jewish state in any boundary.”

He also promised government funding for the Conservative and Reform Jewish movements, in a move which has already been condemned by the two ultra-Orthodox parties in Israel’s coalition Government, Shas and United Torah Judaism.