Bibi Abandons 2-State Solution

As the election got closer and tighter Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved farther and farther away from his 2009 commitment to the two-state solution.

In the years since that speech at Bar Ilan University, his position has gone from "yes, but' to "hell, no" with a few stops in between.

A newsletter distributed by Netanyahu’s Likud Party at synagogues less than two weeks before the election said the Bar-Ilan endorsement of Palestinian statehood has been “annulled” and “Netanyahu’s entire political biography is the struggle against the establishment of the Palestinian state.”

Did he or didn’t he change positions? Netanyahu’s office let the story percolate a few days before issuing a non-denial denial. The Likud newsletter was written by Knesset member Tzipi Hotovely, an advocate of annexing the West Bank, and she was speaking for herself, the PM's office said.

So Netanyahu does support a two-state solution? Not really. Last month he wrote on his Facebook page: “I’m against giving up Judea and Samaria because all that space will become a terrorist base of radical Islam.” Earlier he told a campaign rally “each piece of land from which we withdraw… would be taken over by radical Islam.”

More recently he said Palestinian statehood is “simply not relevant” for the indefinite future because “any land that is handed over would be grabbed by Islamist extremists.” In other words, fuhgeddaboudit. “There will be no withdrawals” and “no concessions” to the Palestinians, Netanyahu said Sunday.