Israeli Minister: Strengthen Palestinian Autonomy
JERUSALEM, Israel -- With negotiations between Israel and the PLO's Palestinian Authority officially over -- at least for now, Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett says it's time for "realistic" solutions that allow Jews and Arabs to live together in this land.
"We are entering a more realistic period," Bennett told members of a business club at Tel Aviv University on Tuesday, YNet reported Wednesday. "There is no perfect solution [for the conflict] and the pursuit of perfection brings us to disaster." Rather, he said, people need to live with the situation on the ground.
Bennett believes it's important to strengthen Palestinian autonomy and allow Arab residents to do as they please. His "relief plan," he said, is to grant them "complete freedom of movement."
A major in the Israel Defense Forces reserves who commanded two elite units, Bennett favors annexing 60 percent of Judea and Samaria and extending Israeli law to those areas.
He also favors offering Israeli citizenship to Palestinian residents in that part of Judea and Samaria and says it's important that Israel "narrow the gap" with its Arab residents.
Asked about Secretary of State John Kerry's inference that Israel risked becoming an "apartheid state" without a two-state solution, Bennett said he was glad he apologized.
"Israel is the only country in the region that is not an apartheid state," he said.
Kerry, meanwhile, hinted he will try to restart talks again in a few months since he believes two states are the only solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
