Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon (Likud) responded on Saturday night to comments about Judea and Samaria that were made by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in a television interview.
Netanyahu told Channel 2 News that not all the communities in Judea and Samaria will be part of Israel in a peace agreement, but that he will do his utmost to ensure that as many as possible do remain under Israeli control.
In response, Danon said, "The Likud's position is to build and not to destroy. The Likud will not be a party to expulsions of Israelis from their homes, to conceding lands and to destroying communities. We already handed over territory in the past and in return we got rockets on Israeli cities.”
The people of Israel, added Danon, “are no longer disillusioned by the equation of land for peace, because in essence it is land for terror.”
In the Channel 2 interview, when asked whether he would be willing to consider evicting Jewish communities as part of a future peace deal, Netanyahu replied, “It’s obvious that some of the settlements will not be part of an agreement. Everyone knows that. I will ensure that it’s the smallest number possible, if we get to that point.”
Netanyahu also promised that “I will not leave a single Israeli without Israeli security, without the full security that we can ensure for every Israeli.”
"It is better that we negotiate,” he continued., “At the end, the main question is, ‘Are you willing to recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people?’ Unless you have that point, there’s no place to go. Concentrate on the key issues on which they need to provide an answer. They do not provide an answer, and when they do, it is a negative answer.”
Netanyahu added, “They say that they will not recognize a Jewish state and that they will keep the right to return open. So what are we talking about here? We will establish a Palestinian state that will continue the conflict against the State of Israel with improved borders? We may be many things, but we're not suckers.”
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was quick to respond to Netanyahu on Friday, when he stood his ground on the issue of recognizing Israel.
Speaking he young members of his Fatah movement, Abbas declared that “there is no way” he would recognize Israel.
The PA has already formally refused to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, stating that "the Arab states will never recognize a Jewish state."