Netanyahu Confirms 'Putting Breaks' On Oslo Accords, Says 'Proud To Prevent Establishment Of Palestine'

PM Netanyahu reiterated his opposition to the Palestinian Authority taking control of Gaza after the war with Hamas ends.

Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

During a news conference at the Defence Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was "proud" to have prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state and claimed responsibility for "putting the brakes" on the Oslo peace process, Times Of Israel reported. Speaking alongside Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his opposition to the Palestinian Authority taking control of Gaza after the war with Hamas ends, adding that "among friends, it's important not to foster illusions," referring to Washington's desire for a "revamped" PA to take control of the coastal enclave.

The Oslo Accords, according to Netanyahu, were "a fateful mistake," and the outcomes of the "little Palestinian state in Gaza" created by Israel's pullout from Gaza in 2005 proved the dangers of permitting Palestinian statehood in the West Bank.

“I’m proud that I prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state because today everybody understands what that Palestine state could have been, now that we’ve seen the little Palestinian state in Gaza. Everyone understands what would have happened if we had capitulated to international pressures and enabled a state like that in Judea and Samaria, surrounding Jerusalem and on the outskirts of Tel Aviv," he was quoted by Times Of Israel in its report. 

Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer pointed out that Netanyahu enacted the interim agreements of the Oslo peace process in the 1990s, voted in favor of disengagement from Gaza (before resigning from Ariel Sharon's government ahead of its implementation), carried out the accord to free abducted soldier Gilad Shalit, in which Hamas's current leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar was released.

Netanyahu stated that he "inherited the Oslo Accords" and that "the decision to bring the PLO from Tunis and plant it in the heart of Judea and Samaria [the West Bank], and in Gaza, was made and implemented before I became prime minister," and that it was "a decision made and implemented before I became prime minister," and was "a mistake I had always thought was made."