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World Jewish News
Netanyahu: We uprooted citizens from Gaza, and now it is a terror base
02.08.2009
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remarked on the four-year anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza. At the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that "Israel uprooted 10,000 of its citizens from their homes and Gaza has turned into a terror base under the control of Hamas, and sponsored by Iran."
"I want to stress the fact that we are committed to the full rehabilitation of those uprooted, and the cabinet will discuss the matter next week," Netanyahu added.
"We will not put up with rocket fire [from Gaza] into our communities. We will decisively respond to every attack," the prime minister went on to declare. "Peace will once again be based on reciprocation."
"Israel expects the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, it expects that the refugee issue be resolved outside of Israel and the implementation of effective security solutions with international guarantees - all these are conditions for the advancement of a sustainable and stable peace agreement," Netanyahu explained.
The prime minister said furthermore that Israel was ready to relaunch peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, with Syria and with any other Arab nation with no preconditions.
"Anyone who insists on preconditions is standing in the way of peace talks," he said.
Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau said that "the establishment of a Palestinian state would not be just," explaining that Fatah, the moderate faction headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, was planning to hold talks with Iran.
"We made a big mistake when the prime minister went too far in his speech at Bar Ilan, promising the establishment of a Palestinian state before the Palestinians agreed to anything," Landau said.
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent
Источник: Haaretz
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