MKs Yitzhak Herzog, Nachman Shai and other Opposition members are demanding that the prime minister fire Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon, after an interview in which he said that the government does not really believe in the two-state solution.
An unfazed Danon said that there was nothing new in what he said to the Times of Israel, and that he had already said similar things in the past.
Danon told Arutz Sheva that the idea of a two-state solution does not have majority backing in the Israeli public, in the Likud movement – or in the government. The government has never held a discussion on the idea and if it did, he estimated, it will probably not be backed by any of the ministers except the ones from Yesh Atid and Hatnua.
Danon added that previous governments have not discussed the idea either, to the best of his knowledge.
The deputy minister said that he does not like the fact that people who oppose the two-state solution are excoriated by “certain elements” in Israel. He reminded readers that Israel is now marking 20 years since “the awful Oslo Accords” – which were inspired by the two-state idea.
Danon said that the right thing to do, in his opinion, is to apply Israeli sovereignty in the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria and to discuss the status of the local Arabs in a joint forum that includes Israel, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority.
Danon attacked the politicians who are attacking him and said that “Likud is a democracy that accepts different streams and opinions, and the majority within the party is against [two states].”
In response to Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who said that she left Likud because of views like his, Danon said: “Wonderful. She wants us to be the contractors who carry out her plans and those of the leftists? Her place was not in Likud to begin with.”
Regarding Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's statements in favor of a two-state solution, Danon said that “there is a difference between statements and actions,” but added that he opposes the statements, too. “If there is actual action [to implement a two state solution] there will be an ideological struggle and a confrontation within Likud, but we are not at that point,” he said. “The Palestinians refuse to even be partners.”