Sunday, January 20, 2013

Netanyahu on US Pressure: They Want me to Capitulate, I Won't Fall for That

Israel's enemies are watching closely the elections results, PM Netanyahu asserted in the interview he gave over the weekend. "(They) want to know one thing, whether the ruling party has grown or shrunk. They want a weak Israel, a divided one and the most challenged country in the world must not be divided," Netanyahu told Channel Two's "Meet The Press".

Commenting on his opponents attacks attacking him for ruining ties with the US, by failing to give in to President Obama's demands in jump-starting the peace process, Netanyahu sounded defiant as ever.

 “When they say, ‘Go back to the ’67 lines,’ I stand against. When they say, ‘Don’t build in Jerusalem,’ I stand against," he said.

He added: “It’s very easy to capitulate. I could go back to the impossible to defend ’67 lines, and divide Jerusalem, and we’d get Hamas 400 meters from my home.. It’s easy to do, and they’d applaud, They’d applaud just like they applauded the parties (in the 2005 Israeli government) that pulled out of Gaza. Those parties got applause, and we got a rain of rockets.” 

Netanyahu said that no matter what pressures were applied, “I have to stand up for our vital interests… when speaking in Congress, and at the UN.”