U.S. Condemns Netanyahu’s Powerful Video About Palestinians’ ‘Ethnic Cleansing’

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U.S. officials condemned a powerful video posted Friday by Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu that rightfully accused the Palestinians of wanting to commit “ethnic cleansing” by ridding the West Bank of Jews.

Netanyahu asserted that the Palestinians would not allow Jews to live in a future Palestinian state.

In his video Netanyahu said any demands that Jews leave their West Bank settlements was “outrageous.”

“It’s even more outrageous that the world doesn’t find this outrageous,” Netanyahu said. “Some otherwise enlightened countries even promote this outrage.”

As could be expected, the Obama administration lased out against Netanyahu.

State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau harshly criticized Netanyahu’s assertions in a news conference Friday in Washington.

“We obviously strongly disagree with the characterization that those who oppose settlement activity or view it as an obstacle to peace are somehow calling for ethnic cleansing of Jews from the West Bank,” Trudeau said.

“We believe that using that type of terminology is inappropriate and unhelpful,” she said.

Netanyahu’s Twitter and Facebook feed introduced his latest video with the short sentence: “No Jews.”

In the video, Netanyahu speaks in English (with Arabic and Hebrew subtitles available).

The video was released around 3 p.m. Friday in Israel, just a few hours before Shabbos and on the day that marks Muslim holidays.

Netanyahu begins: “I am sure many of you have heard the claim that Jewish communities in Judea Samaria, the West Bank, are an obstacle to peace. I’ve always been perplexed by this notion.”

The Jewish communities he refers to are the 200-plus Jewish settlements in the West Bank, home to about 400,000 residents, including many American Israelis.

Netanyahu continues: “No one would seriously claim that the nearly 2 million Arabs living inside Israel – that they’re an obstacle to peace. That’s because they aren’t. On the contrary.”

Arabs, mostly Muslim, make up more than 20 percent of the Jewish state.

“Israel’s diversity shows its openness and readiness for peace,” Netanyahu says in the video. “Yet the Palestinian leadership actually demands a Palestinian state with one precondition: no Jews.”

“There’s a phrase for that: It’s called ethnic cleansing,” he says.

Netanyahu appears to be referring to a 2013 statement by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

“In a final resolution,” Abbas told Egyptian journalists three years ago, “we would not see the presence of a single Israeli – civilian or soldier – on our lands.”

In his video, Netanyahu asked: “Would you accept ethnic cleansing in your state? A territory without Jews, without Hispanics, without blacks? Since when is bigotry a foundation for peace?”

The prime minister concluded: “Ethnic cleansing for peace is absurd. It’s about time somebody said it. I just did.”

Why did Netanyahu issue this video now?

One of his spokesmen, David Keyes, said Netanyahu was not responding to any recent statements by the Palestinian leadership.

In recent weeks, there has been a lot of chatter about a possible meeting between Netanyahu and Abbas in Moscow, brokered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russia’s Interfax news agency reported that the two parties agreed “in principle” to meet but with no set date. This is a little like saying the sun will rise tomorrow. The Israelis and Palestinians are almost always ready, in principle, to meet. The devil is in the details.

But maybe something bigger is brewing?

Robert Danin, former senior U.S. State Department official and peace negotiator, told The Washington Post: “My sense is that by saying there will be ‘no ethnic cleansing of Jews’ in the West Bank, Netanyahu is positioning himself for possible future negotiation with the Palestinians. While showing he is tough, he is also trying to establish a principle: Just as there have been and will continue to be Arab citizens of Israel, so too should there be the right for Jews to remain in a future West Bank state.”

Danin said, “All this allows him to both solidify his right wing base, but also reach out to the center in Israeli politics that wants a two-state solution.”

WATCH THE VIDEO:

(c) 2016, The Washington Post · William Booth 

{Matzav.com Israel}


16 COMMENTS

  1. It’s not U.S. It is Obama. Most Americans are not like him. Liary Corrupted Clownton will be even worse if – God forbid – she’ll be in the whit house instead of in a prison

  2. Everyone is discussing him but not the message.
    Obama admin just trying to avoid the issue with semantics. Ok if its not called ethnic cleansing do they suggest a better word? Is calling it with a better word make is fine?

    And Danin is saying how its good for Bibis career to do this video but also avoids saying that the message of it complete makes sense and should have been said before.

  3. Bibi is investigative. Mind him.

    Old humor is what the palestinian does hide for his affluence. It is not his privacy.

    Think Greater Israel. Settlements must be made. Joining Israel to tomorrow is more careful planning, security and worth. We will have human jovial spirit.

    Everything that is evil offers no hope to Israel. The jews are always castigated for our strength. We just continue. Minds strengthen and the jews give charity.

    The world continues to be under heaven. We must give to strengthen the heavenly prospect for a safe tomorrow. Minds are not given issued hope to destroy.

    Give more as you do. Meager even is faith. The castigation of our people continues to listen misery to its loss.

    Kings are created. The soul finds Torah.

  4. Comment #3, anonymous, just to add to your post, on the contrary, America rewards Iran, the other cleansing platform nation, with 1.4 billion in American dollars – loads of it owed to, as adjudicated by the court system – to families of its victims.

  5. i totally agree with Mr Netanyahu. why are some of you diverting from the topic and ridiculing the seforim in his bookcase? what does that have to do with anything? B”H he has those seform? Do you? what he said in the video
    is 100% correct.

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