After former US President Donald Trump said in an interview that the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel is no longer an option, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich thanked Trump for his words and called on other world leaders to express support for Israel.
"I thank the former US president and presidential candidate, a clear supporter of Israel, Donald Trump, for his withdrawal of support for the establishment of a Palestinian state," Smotrich said. "[A Palestinian state] is an injustice on a historical scale by the West which is willing to endanger the only Jewish country due to internal political interests," he added.
"The aggressive pressure exerted for the establishment of a Palestinian state against the backdrop of the terrible Hamas massacre on October 7 is a gigantic reward for terror and encouragement to Israel's enemies on the path of radical Shiite Islam led by Iran," pointed out Smotrich. "I hope and pray that other world leaders will show the courage and integrity shown by presidential candidate Trump to change their position, and...resolutely join hands with us in the fight we are leading in the name of the free world against radical Islam..."
As mentioned, in a "Time" magazine interview published last Tuesday, Trump withdrew his support for the two-state solution, thereby becoming the first presidential candidate this century to renounce support for a Palestinian state.
"In the past I thought it could work and many people supported it, but today fewer and fewer people support it and it has become more difficult," he said. "When you ask them what they want, they say 'two states', but when Israel agrees, they say 'we want everything.'"
