“There will be no Palestinian state.” So declared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, upon approving a new housing development east of Jerusalem that will divide the West Bank (Judea and Samaria).
The development, known as E1, was approved by finance minister Bezalel Smotrich in August after several western countries began saying that they would recognize a Palestinian state despite the ongoing war, and despite the fact that Hamas continues to hold, and to starve, dozens of Israeli hostages.
The new community will connect Jerusalem with the settlement community of Ma’aleh Adumin, to the east.
The Jerusalem Post reported:
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich approved the new E1 settlement plan near Ma’aleh Adumim, which would split east Jerusalem from the West Bank.
Standing at the site of the planned settlement on Thursday, Smotrich said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump had agreed to the revival of the E1 development.
“Those around the world who try to recognize a Palestinian state will see our response on the ground – not with documents or declarations, but with facts: homes, roads, and Jewish families building their lives here,” Smotrich said.
On Thursday, Netanyahu visited Ma’aleh Adumim to approve the plan — and to declare the Palestinian state over. The Times of Israel reported:
“There will be no Palestinian state,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared at the Thursday ceremony in Ma’ale Adumim. In 2009, he had promised a Palestinian state in his famous Bar-Ilan speech, and in 2020, he had conditionally agreed to such a state as part of US President Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century.” But government ministers who attended the ceremony on Thursday are confident that this time, there will be no turning back.
Correspondent Shalom Yerushalmi said: “Construction in E1 is the last nail in the coffin of the two-state solution.”
In remarks distributed by the Government Press Office, and translated from Hebrew, Netanyahu said:
We said that there will not be a Palestinian state – and indeed there will be no Palestinian state! This place is ours. We will see to our heritage, our land and our security.
We are now almost two years into a war that was forced on us on that terrible day of slaughter, of abductions of our hostages, most of whom have returned, but others remain. We will bring them all back – the living and the deceased.
However, we understood, and I said this on the second day of the war, we will change the face of the Middle East. Because it was clear to me that we were not fighting just the murderers of Hamas, but we were fighting Iran and the Iranian axis, that in effect came to strangle us and destroy us. We did so step by step, step by step. When I say ‘We did it’, we did it together. Not just my friends in government, it is the heroes, our soldiers who are fighting, and the heroes who have fallen, and the people of Israel who have constantly stood steadfast, when we struck Iran and pushed off an existential threat. Not just over hundreds or thousands, but over millions of Israeli citizens, and over our entire future, and over the dream of the generations who came before us, for realizing the dream of those who will come after us.
We removed these threats thanks to the steadfast endurance of the citizens of Israel, yours here in Maale Adumim. We will complete the work. What began in Gaza – will end in Gaza. We will defeat Hamas.
At the same time, we are dealing with other parts of the axis, who still need to be dealt with, such as the Houthis. But we really are taking brave and determined action. Perhaps the most important thing in this battle, is the determination that stems from the recognition that we are fighting not just for our land, our children and our grand-children, but to ensure – in two words – the eternity of Israel. The eternity of Israel is currently being decided in all parts of the Land of Israel, here as well, in the expanding Maale Adumim.
Israelis once supported a two-state solution, but support for that idea has collapsed over the past decade, after several wars in which Hamas attacked Israel.
Netanyahu had contemplated annexing the West Bank, but refrained from doing so, after Arab countries indicated that doing so would end the Abraham Accords peace agreement.
The construction in E1 falls short of annexation but makes the territorial contiguity of a Palestinian state impossible.
Later Friday, the United Nations General Assembly is set to vote on declaring a Palestinian state, in a resolution that demands that Palestinians be able to govern all of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Zionist Conspiracy Wants You, now available on Amazon. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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