Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is calling on the international community to recognize the possibility of a future peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians that is based on a political model that exists nowhere else in the world: the Palestinians will receive full authority to handle their own affairs, other than security.
Netanyahu told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the Palestinians should have full authority to govern themselves, but not to pose a threat to Israel.
Netanyahu explained that Israel would retain full control over security, including in the Jordan Valley, and that Israel had no desire to create "another failed state" in the Middle East.
Israel does not want to annex the Palestinians as citizens, or rule them as subjects, the prime minister said, adding that they could have their own flag and embassies, calling the idea a "new model."
Netanyahu also said it was necessary to wait and see what peace proposals would be forthcoming from the U.S. administration, adding that it was a "fantasy" to think that any entity other than the U.S. could broker peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and stressing that Jerusalem would remain the capital of Israel under any future peace deal. Netanyahu said that the Palestinians' refusal to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel made peace harder to achieve, but promised to keep the status quo on the Temple Mount in place.
Turning to Iran, Netanyahu made it clear that if the U.S. were to unilaterally withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran could obtain nuclear weapons.
The deal "gives Iran, the pre-eminent terrorist state of our time, the wherewithal to produce nuclear weapons, nuclear bombs. They could give [them] to proxies, to terrorists. They could use it themselves.
"I don't particularly care if they fix the deal or if they cancel the deal. The important thing for me it to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear arsenal, because Iran not only spreads terrorism worldwide, Iran openly says it's going to use those weapons – and use every weapon they have – to annihilate Israel. We're not going to let that happen," Netanyahu said.
The prime minister slammed the nuclear deal as "so full of holes" that it allowed Iran to obtain whatever it needed to implement its plans, saying that Iran will be able to enrich enough uranium for 100 to 200 nuclear bombs and build an enormous nuclear arsenal.
