JERUSALEM POST
By Herb Keinon, Lahav Harkov
May 1, 2014
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu pledged on Thursday to promote a Knesset basic law defining Israel as a Jewish state, telling critics they cannot demand Jerusalem withdraw from the West Bank to protect the country’s Jewish identity, and then be unwilling to recognize that Jewish identity.
Proponents of a two-state solution – including everyone from US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Finance Minister Yair Lapid – consistently argue that the only way Israel can remain a Jewish and democratic state is if it withdraws from most of Judea and Samaria and establishes a Palestinian state.
But if that is the case, Netanyahu said, it is “astonishing” to him why there should be any opposition to recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.
“One cannot favor the establishment of a Palestinian nation-state in order to maintain the Jewish character of the State of Israel and – at the same time – oppose recognizing that the State of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish People,” he said. “Supporting the establishment of a Palestinian nation-state and opposing the recognition of the Jewish nation-state undermines – over the long-term – the State of Israel’s very right to exist.”
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