Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has downplayed warnings made by security agencies and the opposition that he was wasting peace chances with the Arab world for holding onto the “occupation.”
“Occupation (in the West Bank) is nonsense,” Netanyahu has reportedly told members of his Likud Party.
“Empires have conquered and replaced entire populations and no one is talking about it.”
What truly matters is strong diplomacy, Netanyahu added.
“Power is key,” he said. “Power changes everything in our policy with Arab countries.”
The head of Israel’s internal security service Shin Bet has described the prevailing calm in the occupied West Bank as “deceiving.”
"The situation on the Palestinian front has been very unstable over the past year," Nadav Argaman told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in the Knesset.
His remarks are a clear sign of acknowledgment that the West Bank is under occupation.
