Netanyahu Backs Plans for Demilitarized Palestinian State

MARGARET WARNER:

In a long-awaited speech last night, Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for the first time endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state.

translator):

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, prime minister, Israel (through In my vision of peace, in this small land of ours, two peoples live freely side by side in amity and mutual respect. Each will have its own flag, its own national anthem, its own government.

MARGARET WARNER:

But Netanyahu used his primetime address to lay down stiff limits on any future Palestinian nation. It must be demilitarized, he said, and it must recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU (through translator):

If we receive this guarantee regarding demilitarization and Israel's security needs, and if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people, then we will be ready in a future peace agreement to reach a solution.

MARGARET WARNER:

Recognizing Israel as a Jewish state contradicts Palestinian demands for the right of return to lands from which they were ousted at Israel's founding in 1948.

He also repeated Israel's longstanding view that Jerusalem must remain united under Israeli control. The Palestinians want the eastern part of the city for their future capital.

The prime minister's address was partly meant to answer President Obama's June 4 speech in Cairo to the Muslim world laying out his approach to restarting the peace process.

that proposal:

But Netanyahu last night firmly rejected a central part in Mr. Obama's call for an immediate and total freeze on Israeli settlements on the West Bank.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU (through translator):

We have no intention of building new settlements or expropriating additional land for existing settlements, but there is a need to enable residents to live normal lives.

MARGARET WARNER:

Even that didn't sit well with some settlers on the West Bank.

BARUCH MARZEL, settler advocate: We're here to tell Netanyahu that he was elected by a majority of people that wanted him to guard the land of Israel. And if he'll betray us again, we'll take him down again.

MARGARET WARNER:

Palestinians liked the speech even less, though they stopped short of refusing to re-enter peace talks. Their chief negotiator, Saeb Erakat, said Netanyahu's conditions would make a viable Palestinian state impossible.

SAEB EREKAT, chief Palestinian negotiator: We have attempts to move a peace process which was moving like a turtle in the region. Now Netanyahu tonight flipped it on it's back.

MARGARET WARNER:

In Gaza, power base of the Islamist group Hamas, a spokesman said the conditions proved Netanyahu was lying about desiring peace.

SAMI ABU ZUHRI, Hamas spokesman: He will never trick us or our nation, and we will continue to demand our rights and our Palestinian land.

MARGARET WARNER:

Arab leaders in the region also rejected Netanyahu's proposals and his call for greater ties with them, but Netanyahu's speech was met with a mixed reaction in Europe and cautious optimism from the U.S.

Aboard Air Force One today, presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs called the prime minister's speech "a big step forward in acknowledging for the first time the need for a two-state solution. The president believes that there is a long way to go," Mr. Gibbs said, "but is pleased thus far with the progress that's being made."