Just ahead of his departure for Washington on Tuesday for his first meeting with US President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke to the New York Times and stressed that the Bennett-Lapid government would neither annex nor form a Palestinian state.
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Peace talks would not happen partly because the Palestinian leadership is "fractured and rudderless," he told the Times.
"I'm prime minister of all Israelis, and what I'm doing now is finding the middle ground – how we can focus on what we agree upon," Bennett said.
"Israel will continue the standard policy of natural growth," Bennett said, adding that his government would expand construction in Judea and Samaria, but declining to discuss American pressure to open a reopen a consulate in east Jerusalem to provide services to the Palestinian population.
"Jerusalem is the capital of Israel," Bennett said. "It's not the capital of other nations."
As far as the escalating security situation on Israel's southern border with the Gaza Strip, Bennett declared he was prepared to continue fighting Hamas, even if coalition partner Ra'am opposed this approach.
"I will do what's necessary to secure my people," Bennett said. "I will not and never involve political considerations in defense- and security-related decisions."
Bennett also said that it would be a mistake for the US to rejoin the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran and that he planned to present Biden with a "new strategy" on Tehran that would include an axis of opposition revolving around the "reasonable" Arab nations that refuse to cooperate with Iran's policies.
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