by Sam Sokol at The Times of Israel
As Washington weighs selling F-35s to Riyadh, Israel said insisting sale be conditioned on normalization; politicians, settler leaders oppose two-state solution as part of deal
The revival of diplomatic efforts to secure a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia has triggered intense criticism from Israel’s far-right ministers and West Bank settlement authorities, who pressured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening to reject any proposal perceived as advancing Palestinian statehood.
Two of Netanyahu’s right-wing allies called on him to make an unequivocal public declaration that Israel will never accept the establishment of a Palestinian state, following the release of a US-organized joint statement by several nations asserting that President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan “offers a pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich accused Netanyahu of “silence and diplomatic disgrace” on the issue, arguing that the prime minister had failed to respond forcefully to recent unilateral recognitions of a Palestinian state by several countries.
Smotrich demanded that Netanyahu “immediately formulate an appropriate and decisive response that will make it clear to the entire world [that] a Palestinian state will never be established on the territory of our homeland.”
Last month,…
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