Netanyahu: ‘Israel has to control the entire area from the river to the sea’
BREAKING: Netanyahu just declared “Israel has to control the entire area from the river to the sea.”
Ruling Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza forever, until they’re killed or driven out.
Endless occupation, apartheid, and genocide. Will this be your legacy @JoeBiden? pic.twitter.com/e2DcSaIhTK
— IfNotNow🔥✡️ (@IfNotNowOrg) January 18, 2024
Invoking a phrase that has recently touched off moral panics whenever it’s been uttered by a college sophomore, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday promised verbatim that Israel will take over the entire region it currently occupies, “from the river to the sea.”
The prime minister vowed to oppose the creation of any Palestinian state, as Israel continues its horrific military bombardment of Gaza. Israel has killed at least 24,000 Palestinians in Gaza in the last three months, under Netanyahu’s leadership—and the prime minister made it clear that Israel won’t be stopping its war any time soon.
“For 30 years, I am very consistent and I am saying something very simple: this conflict is not on the lack of a state of Palestinians, but the existence of a state, the Jewish state,” Netanyahu said, according to a translation on i24NEWS.
“And therefore I clarify that in any other arrangement, in the future, Israel has to control the entire area from the river to the sea.”
The use of the phrase “from the river to the sea” has come under particular scrutiny in the last three months. When Palestinians, or anyone on the left, has used the phrase to demand a free Palestine—as in the popular chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”—those on the right have disingenuously argued that it is calling for the death of all Jewish people in Israel. [Continue reading…]
So they’ve just told the ICJ that they didn’t mean their genocidal rhetoric, yet their security minister repeats the threat to ‘encourage’ the Palestinians out. To be clear: expulsion would complete the destruction of P society in Gaza, i.e, a further stage of the genocide. https://t.co/YYhuys76vV
— Martin Shaw (@martinshawx) January 18, 2024
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday rejected U.S. calls to scale back Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip or take steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state after the war, drawing an immediate scolding from the White House.
The tense back and forth reflected what has become a wide rift between the two allies over the scope of Israel’s war and its plans for the future of the beleaguered territory.
“We obviously see it differently,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.
Netanyahu spoke just a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel would never have “genuine security” without a pathway toward Palestinian independence. Earlier this week, the White House also announced that it was the “right time” for Israel to lower the intensity of its devastating military offensive in Gaza. [Continue reading…]