Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says that Israel will have to encircle any new Arab entity in Judea and Samaria, in order to prevent rocket smuggling.
Speaking with foreign reporters on Wednesday evening, Netanyahu said that Israel must ensure "an efficient way, at the entry and exit points, to stop rockets from being smuggled into the territories close to Israel."
“This will require an Israeli presence on the eastern side of the Palestinian state,” the prime minister continued. “I don’t know how it will be executed, but it has to happen.”
Netanyahu has long held that Israel must control the Jordan Valley, which is the eastern edge of Judea and Samaria, in any future peace arrangement with the Palestinian Authority. He has similarly said that any future PA state must be demilitarized.
Netanyahu to Abbas: Get Down From Tree Already
The prime minister called yet again for PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas to enter into resumed negotiations with Israel without conditions: “They must get down off the tree. They climbed up a high tree, and they like it there. The more ladders they are brought, the higher they climb up.”
Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat ignored Netanyahu’s calls for a resumption of talks, but said, “Netanyahu is once again trying to set facts on the ground by himself.”