IDF soldiers
IDF soldiersIsrael news photo: IDF website

Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) expressed concern Tuesday following United States President Barack Obama’s speech to the United Nations, in which he referred to Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria (Shomron) as “the occupation of the West Bank” and argued that “Israel’s security… depends on the realization of a Palestinian state.”

“I believe this is one of the most disturbing statements that a United States president has ever made,” Katz wrote on his Facebook page.

“Mr. President, the existence of the state of Israel is unconditional, and does not depend on the Palestinians,” he declared.

“The United States helps Israel, but we have always known how to protect ourselves by ourselves,” he added. “We want peace, but we will not take unnecessary risks, and we will not accept an agreement that puts our continued existence in danger.”

Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon responded to Obama’s speech with a message to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. “If this is the wind that now blows from the direction of the President of the United States, then expect serious pressure down the line,” he warned.

“I’m sure you will represent Israel in the spirit of [Zionist leader Ze’ev] Jabontinsky, ‘The Iron Wall’- strength combined with determination and stability will guarantee Israel’s might,” Danon told Netanyahu.

In Jabotinsky’s essay “The Iron Wall,” he wrote that Zionists and Arabs could not make peace in the foreseeable future due to insurmountable political differences.

“The Zionists want only one thing, Jewish immigration; and this Jewish immigration is what the Arabs do not want,” he wrote at the time, concluding that, “We hold that Zionism is moral and just. And since it is moral and just, justice must be done, no matter whether Joseph or Simon or Ivan or Ahmet agree with it or not.”