BICOM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told BBC2’s Newsnight that “changing our relations with the Arab world is a path to peace [with the Palestinians]”.

In the exclusive BBC interview Netanyahu told presenter Evan Davis: “There is a massive change taking place today in the relations between Israel and the Arab countries … who are coming closer to Israel because of the Iranian threat and as they do, they are starting to see the benefit of Israeli technology. They know that Israel is this fountain head of technology that can help change their lives. As we normalise our relations with Arab countries, it will positively impact our efforts for peace with the Palestinians. Getting peace with the 99 per cent will lead to peace with the 1 per cent. And we should do it in tandem.”

When questioned on what the Palestinians would receive if they recognised Israel as the Jewish state, Netanyahu said they should have “all the abilities to govern themselves and none of the powers to threaten us”.

Asked if this meant a state of their own, Netanyahu replied: “You can call it want you want. But we [Israel] would have the overriding security responsibility in the small area no bigger than the size of Greater London. Their capital will be where they chose it but Jerusalem was and will remain our capital.”Netanyahu was asked whether he sympathised with the Palestinian position, and if he recognised the justice of their cause, Netanyahu said “justice maintains that the one and only Jewish state has the ability to live and be recognised”.

When asked why there is no peace, Netanyahu said: “The reason we don’t solve this problem is not because there is no Palestinian state, but because they don’t recognise the Jewish state. If they did, then I think we can organise for them an independent life with Israeli security guarantee.”

Netanyahu was criticised for calling 14 May a “glorious day”, when the US opened its embassy in Jerusalem and 62 Palestinians were killed on the Gaza border. Netanyahu said: “Yes, moving the US embassy was a historic day. The bad thing, none of us are happy about, is that Hamas are trying to storm into Israel, not peacefully, and kill as many Israelis as we can, some of whom are only 200 meters away.”

“Hamas are trying to push people into the line of fire, to try and kill Israelis and then to present it as this is Martin Luther King Day.. these were violent riots trying to kill Israelis,” he added.