Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back at United States plans to place a reformed Palestinian Authority in Gaza once Israel’s military campaign to oust Gaza is finished."Gaza will be neither Hamastan nor Fatahstan,” he said on Tuesday.
Netanyahu spoke as United States President Joe Biden has faced increased pressure to pressure Israel to halt the Gaza war, sparked by Hamas’ infiltration of southern Israel and the killing of over 1,200 people and seizure of some 250 hostages.The US has backed Israel’s military campaign, sending military and financial assistance. It vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire that failed to condemn Hamas.
American-Israeli relations
Netanyahu thanked the Biden administration. "I greatly appreciate the American support for destroying Hamas and returning our hostages.
“Following an intensive dialogue with President Biden and his team, we received full backing for the ground incursion and blocking the international pressure to stop the war,” Netanyahu said
“Yes, there is disagreement about 'the day after Hamas' and I hope that we will reach an agreement here as well,” he explained.
“I would like to clarify my position: I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo,” Netanyahu said as he pointed to the 1993 Accord that one year later allowed for the creation of the governing body called the Palestinian Authority.
The PA governs Areas A and B of the West Bank and until 2007 it also operated in Gaza, but Hamas drove it out of the enclave in a bloody coup. This followed Israel’s withdrawal of its army from Gaza and its destruction of 21 settlements there in 2005.
Netanyahu has explained that Hamas can not govern Gaza after the war, but neither can the PA, particularly in light of its policy of providing monthly financial stipends to terrorists and their families.“After the great sacrifice of our civilians and our soldiers, I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism and finance terrorism,” Netanyahu said.He less than a day after US President Joe Biden announced his public support for Israel and its war against Gaza, but warned that it might not be possible to extend that backing long term.At the White House’s annual Hanukkah party, Biden said, “We continue to provide military assistance [to the IDF] until they get rid of Hamas - but you have to be careful, I have to be careful.”“The whole world, public opinion, can shift overnight, you can’t let that happen,” he added.Earlier Monday a small group of Jewish protestors chanted outside the White House, “Biden, Biden pick a side, ceasefire not genocide.”Hamas has asserted that close to 18,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of war-related violence in Gaza, with Israel explaining that 7,000 of those fatalities are combatants. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced due to the war and humanitarian aid has not been able to keep up with the needs of the population.In Israel, Labor Party leader MK Merav Michaeli said “For 30 years Netanyahu has been blaming Oslo, and for more than 16 of them he has been prime minister.
“He didn't cancel Oslo, he continued Oslo and used it to incite and stay in power. He never came up with another solution and what he did come up with was an awful, terrible failure.“The path of Oslo is the path that the State of Israel needs - a political settlement to end the conflict. Until we go there, we will continue to follow Bibi, and get lost,” she said.