Sa’ar: Palestinian state ‘ain’t gonna happen’

Defence affair - FMI

Israel will not give in to pressure to end the war in Gaza, nor will foreign countries force it to accept a Palestinian state, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says in a briefing with international journalists.

He blasts “a distorted campaign of international pressure” on Israel to end the war, which would leave Hamas in power in Gaza. “It ain’t gonna happen,” he says. “No matter how much pressure is put on Israel.”

Sa’ar says that the pressure campaign’s second goal is to force a two-state solution on Israel. “Establishing a Palestinian state today is establishing a Hamas state. A jihadist state,” says Sa’ar. “It ain’t gonna happen.”

Sa’ar accuses European governments of allowing their policies to be affected by their “huge Muslim populations,” with Israel being sacrificed to appease this constituency.

“Israel will not be the Czechoslovakia of the 21st century,” he says, referring to European powers agreeing to Nazi Germany’s 1938 annexation of the Sudetenland in an effort to appease Adolf Hitler.

“We won’t sacrifice our own existence for the sake of the appeasement countries,” Sa’ar continues. “We won’t give up our basic interests for the sake of internal politics in certain countries that lost control over their own streets.”

He says that pressure on Israel “is directly sabotaging the chances for a ceasefire and hostage deal” with Hamas and is making military escalation more likely. “The international pressure must not be on Israel. It must be on Hamas.”