Israel: ‘No real solution to conflict with Palestinians,’ says minister

Israel’s interior minister told American news website The Hill this week that there is “no real solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “We should manage the conflict,” said Ayelet Shaked, “not solve it.”

The website pointed out that Shaked’s political positions can be described as extreme as she supports Israel’s annexation of the occupied West Bank and expansion of illegal settlements. She also rejects the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

When asked how the Israeli government should deal with the Palestinians, she said: “We should focus on what we can do, and not go on adventures that we know that will lead to dead ends.”

According to a report in the Times of Israel, Shaked believes that the expansion of Israel’s normalisation agreements with Arab countries that began last year will depend on the United States offering its own incentives to regional countries.

She was also reported as saying that Israel had to give up plans to annex large parts of the West Bank to set the accords in motion. Now, she insisted, there should be no further Israeli gestures to the Palestinians in order to build on the existing normalisation agreements.

READ: Shaked’s party to leave government if settlement freeze is agreed

“There’s a lot of potentials, but a lot is dependent on the influence of the [Biden] administration,” she said. “In the end, these countries make peace, not only because they have an interest in making peace with Israel, but also because they have an interest [vis-a-vis] the US.”

She pointed out that each of the countries that joined the Abraham Accords received something from the Americans. “So if the Americans are prepared to invest in this then I think there is significant potential.”