Precisely now, in the face of heavy international pressure, application of Israeli sovereignty is the only way to safeguard Israel’s security, its stability, and the future of the Jewish people in their land.
Mr. Prime Minister,
Once again you have been invited to visit the White House—the sixth visit to the place that seeks to shape the entire world in accordance with the American interest.
Such a visit is ostensibly considered a diplomatic compliment from the leader of the free world. However, such a visit may indeed conceal a real existential danger to Israel if it becomes a fast and consistent track toward the establishment of a Palestinian state. This is something the U.S. president knows how to do through a friendly embrace, a handshake radiating appreciation and respect, behind which lie pressures on the one hand and inducements on the other.
Washington’s leading strategic objective is one: advancing the Abraham Accords in order to generate regional stabilization through them, followed by strengthening the American economy and achieving significant diplomatic gains in our region. All of this also increases the likelihood of awarding the American president a Nobel Prize. But from Israel, the American expectation is to pay with a currency that endangers its future and its very existence—the currency of recognizing a Palestinian state.
Mr. Prime Minister,
The smiles, embraces, and caresses of the White House in front of the cameras, and on the other hand the talks, promises, and pressures in closed rooms, have one goal: to apply leverage whose purpose is to coerce Israel into entering the path paved by the U.S. president toward the establishment of a Palestinian state, while relinquishing strategic depth vital to Israel’s security, granting Arab control over Israel’s strategic heartland, and ignoring the growing threats from Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and Iranian militias to Israel’s future.
During your upcoming visit to the White House, you may find yourself entering—despite your ideological opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state—a “coalition of pressures,” a diplomatic corral in which any Israeli step seeking to escape the fate at the end of this dangerous political path will exact a heavy strategic price from Israel. The beginning of this dangerous corral may also lie in implicit commitments or unwritten understandings without immediate decisions. Such understandings will become a binding political burden on the shoulders of whoever sits in the Prime Minister’s Office in the future.
We remind you that the U.S. president’s 2020 political plan is still on the table, and it includes a clear roadmap leading to the future establishment of a Palestinian state. This map includes the transfer of about seventy percent of the territories of Judea and Samaria for the establishment of a Palestinian state, together with additional territories in the Negev, and the creation of territorial contiguity through tunnels, bridges, and bypass roads.
Indeed, this map includes certain limitations on that Palestinian state, but the vast majority of these limitations are “soft” and “flexible,” such that a future administration in the White House could easily erase and cancel them.
This map exists and remains in the drawers of the Oval Office, and in a single moment of decision it can be pulled out and become the basis for political agreements. This can clearly be learned from the framework presented by the American president for ending the war. This path included twenty points, the core of which was an interim stage involving the establishment of a Peace Council headed by Trump himself, whose purpose would be coordinating the rehabilitation of the Strip until the completion of Palestinian reform that would allow the Palestinian Authority to regain control of the Gaza Strip on the way to the establishment of a Palestinian state with Israeli recognition.
Already now, even before the completion of Phase A of the plan, before all the hostages have been returned, the Trump administration is already applying pressure on you, Mr. Prime Minister, to move to the next stage. The American administration is in a hurry, even if the one who will pay the price in its security is the most faithful ally in the Middle East—the State of Israel.
Two central camps have emerged and strengthened in recent years. One is the Western–Arab axis, defined as pragmatic, and opposite it stands the Islamist axis led by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Western–Arab axis includes the United States, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. This axis is convinced that regional stability will be achieved through the establishment of a Palestinian state. The opposing axis includes Turkey, Qatar, Hamas, and other Islamic movements. This axis is not concerned with regional stability but with advancing a global Islamist project, and for this purpose it strives in every way to strengthen Palestinian nationalism and to attack Israel in every arena and tribunal.
One move, therefore, is agreed upon by both camps: pressure must be applied to Israel in order to bring about the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Here is the place to recall the fundamental principle that cannot be erased or rewritten: the people of Israel are not “occupiers in their land,” but rather have returned to their historical homeland. This principle must be echoed again and again before the entire world from every platform. This principle has been recognized in international law, as is well known: the Balfour Declaration (1917) included official recognition of the right of the Jewish people to a national home; the San Remo Resolution (1920) included an international decision obligating the promotion of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel; the Mandate Charter (1922) included an obligation to settle Jews in all parts of the land.
The Six-Day War was a defensive war that returned to Israel territories that had effectively been promised to the Jewish people. Israel has no obligation to establish a Palestinian state. Israel is obligated to only one thing: to safeguard its security, its rights, and its future.
Israeli Sovereignty is not the problem—it is the solution. Israeli Sovereignty in the Jordan Valley ensures control of the eastern border; Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria ensures strategic depth and strengthens settlement; and Israeli sovereignty in Gaza establishes a new and stable security reality. Israeli sovereignty strengthens the Western axis and blocks the Islamist influence of Turkey, Qatar, and their partners. Israeli Sovereignty sets clear boundaries against any attempt at regional pressure.
The message you must carry, Mr. Prime Minister, before the entire world—friends and adversaries alike—is that a strong Israel strengthens the entire West. Weakening Israel will cause the entire region to fall into the hands of extremist, terror-supporting elements.
Mr. Prime Minister, we are at a moment of decision, and at such a moment our call to you is to stand firm against the pressures of the “path to a Palestinian state.” Do not allow your visit to the White House to become a historical trap. Stand up for the rights of the people of Israel and do not relinquish the heart of the land. Draw strength from the people of Israel, who well understand the existential dangers inherent in the establishment of a terror state in the heart of our land. The people have expressed their position clearly and resolutely and are calling for sovereignty. Mr. Netanyahu, in your visits to the White House and around the world, you represent us—the people of Israel across generations.
Precisely now, in the face of heavy international pressure, application of Israeli sovereignty is the only way to safeguard Israel’s security, its stability, and the future of the Jewish people in their land.