“An agreement with the Palestinians, based on two states for two peoples, is the right thing for Israel’s security, its economy, the future of its children.” Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid told the UN General Assembly. Most Israelis support a two-state solution, “I’m one of them,” he stressed. Lapid, however, posed a condition. «The future Palestinian state must be peaceful. It must not become another terrorist base to threaten Israel’s well-being and existence, ”Lapid said, referring to the Gaza Strip, from which Israel withdrew in 2005, receiving missiles and not peace in exchange. Israel, he said, is ready to lift the restrictions imposed on Gaza “tomorrow morning” if no more missiles are launched from the Strip, Israeli citizens held captive are released and the bodies of killed soldiers returned.
Lapid’s outstretched hand
In his speech to the UN, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid appealed “to all Muslim countries, from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia, to recognize our outstretched hand of peace”. “We have proved our desire for peace with the Abrahamic agreements, the Negev summit and the agreements signed with the Arab world,” he added.
The premier then addressed the Iran issue: “The international community should use” military force “if Iran develops nuclear weapons.” Israel has conducted an intense diplomatic offensive in recent months to try to persuade the United States and the main European powers not to restore the Iranian nuclear deal of 2015. “The only way to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon it is putting a credible military threat on the table, ”Lapid said in a speech to the UN General Assembly. Only then will it be possible to negotiate a longer and stronger agreement with them “, added the Israeli Prime Minister,” it must be made clear to Iran that if it carries out its nuclear program, the world will not respond with words, but with military force “.
“We will do everything necessary,” concluded Lapid, “Iran will not get a nuclear weapon.” Lapid then accused the Tehran leadership of conducting a “hate orchestra” against Jews and said that Iranian ideologues “hate and kill Muslims who think differently, such as Salman Rushdie and Mahsa Amini”, the young woman whose death in the custody of the Iranian moral police triggered protests across the Islamic republic.
Netanyahu: it hurts us
Benyamin Netanyahu’s reaction lasts: «A speech made of weakness and defeatism». Netanyahu – a historian skeptical of the two-state solution and a preacher of becoming the next prime minister – denounced in a video that the opening of Lapid “damages the future of Israel”. “Lapid – he attacked – brings the Palestinians back to the world stage and puts Israel in the Palestinian pit”. “He is giving the Palestinians a terrorist state in the heart of the country, a state that will threaten us.” The reactions of the nationalist and religious right, which speak of shameful surrender to terrorism, are furious. The November vote will also express itself on this.