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Itongadol.- Two days after his resounding re-election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the US airwaves on Thursday to assuage White House concerns that he has backtracked from the two-state solution and moved far to the right.
“I never retracted my speech in Bar Ilan University six years ago calling for a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognized the Jewish state,” Netanyahu said in an interview with MSNBC\’s Andrea Mitchell.
“I want a sustainable peaceful two-state solution. But for that, circumstances have to change,” he said.
The interview came a day after both White House and State Department officials spoke of a re-evaluation of its approach to the Middle East diplomatic process, following Netanyahu\’s comment that a Palestinian state would not emerge under his tenure.
Administration officials hinted broadly that the Obama administration may for the first time back a UN Security Council resolution laying down the principles for a two-state solution, or support a Palestinian bid to join the UN as a full member.
Netanyahu said that while he has not backtracked on his Bar-Ilan University speech, the reality has changed. He blamed Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas for being responsible for part of that change in reality, saying that he refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and has made a pact with Hamas that calls for Israel\’s destruction.
He also said that all territory vacated in the Middle East is taken over by Islamist forces.
In the interview Netanyahu spoke of the need for him and US President Barack Obama to work together, saying there was an “unbreakable bond between Israel and the United States.”
“If you want to get peace, you’ve got to get the Palestinian leadership to abandon their pact with Hamas and engage in genuine negotiations with Israel for an achievable peace,” he said. “We have to also make sure that we don’t have ISIS coming in to that territory. It’s only two dozen miles away from our border.”
Asked about his comments on Election Day where he urged his supporters to vote because Arab voters were going to the polls en masse, words that triggered a harsh response Wednesday from the White House, Netanyahu said that the right of all to vote in Israel is “sacrosanct.”
He said his words referred to a “massive foreign funded effort” to try to get out votes for a specific party (the United List), which he called “an amalgamation of Islamists and other anti-Israel groups.
“I said when that happens, make sure we get out our vote,” he said. “I wasn’t trying to suppress a vote, I was trying to get something to counter a foreign funded effort to get votes that are intended to topple my party, and I was calling on our voters to come out.”
Netanyahu dismissed allegations he was racist.
"I\’m not," he said.
Netanyahu, in his first interview since the election, said that while he and Obama may have their differences, “we have so many things that unite us. We have a situation in the Middle East that is very dangerous and presents a common challenge to us.”
The prime minister said that although he has not yet spoken to Obama, he is sure he will do so soon.
“We work together. We have to,” he said. “We have our differences. By coming to the US [to speak to Congress] I did not mean any disrespect or attempt at partisanship, but I was merely speaking of something that I view could endanger the survival of Israel.”
Netanyahu said there were many areas where the US and Israel must work together. “We are allies. We have to consult each other, not have fiats or unilateral impositions, but negotiated peace with our neighbors and support between allies. America has no greater ally than Israel, and Israel has no greater ally than the United States.”
Meanwhile, administration officials were quoted in The New York Times on Thursday as saying that Obama, following Netanyahu\’s re-election, will not “waste his time” on the managing Israel-US relations, delegating that instead to US Secretary of State John Kerry.
The Times quoted a senior White House official as saying that the the US position has been to support direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians. “We are now in a reality where the Israeli government no longer supports direct negotiations., he said, “Therefore we clearly have to factor that into our decisions going forward.”
While Obama has not yet called Netanyahu to congratulate him on his victory, the premier did receive calls on Thursday from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. He also received congratulatory messages from the leaders of the Netherlands, Romania and the Czech Republic.
Meanwhile, J street announced Thursday that Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, will headline it’s annual conference in Washington which begins on Sunday. J Street, which describes itself as pro-Israel and pro-peace, is adamantly opposed to Netanyahu and his policies.
Among the other featured speakers at the conference will be former secretary of state James Baker, who served under George H.W. Bush and clashed loud and often with then prime minister Yitzhak Shamir in the early 1990s. Baker is currently an advisor to Jeb Bush, a prospective republican candidate in the 2016 elections.