Israel's PM: We will neither annex territory, nor allow formation of Palestinian state

Israel will neither annex any part of the West Bank, nor will it allow the creation of a Palestinian state,  Israel's Prime Minister said in an interview with the New York Times, published on Tuesday.

Naftali Bennett landed in Washington on Wednesday morning, on the eve of a meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House, his first state visit. 

“This government will neither annex nor form a Palestinian state, everyone gets that,” he said. “I’m prime minister of all Israelis, and what I’m doing now is finding the middle ground — how we can focus on what we agree upon.”

"Natural growth" of Jewish Israeli settlements in the West Bank would be allowed to continue, Bennett said.

Peace talks between Jerusalem and Ramallah will not take place "because the Palestinian leadership is fractured and rudderless," he added. 

The blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip will also be maintained "as long as Hamas, which controls the territory, continues to arm itself and fire rockets at Israel," he said. The prime minister added that he would be ready to engage in a new war against the Islamist group even if his government lost the support of the four lawmakers of the Ra'am party whose votes keep it in power.

"I will do whatever is necessary to secure my people," Bennett said. "I will not and will never involve political considerations in decisions related to defense and security," he said.

He also did not disclose whether he would block the Biden administration's efforts to reestablish a consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem, insisting on a single detail:

"Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, it is not the capital of any other nation."

While the administration of the Fatah controlled Palestinian Authority is based in Ramallah, in the West Bank, Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as their capital. Israel conquered that part of the city and reunited it with west Jerusalem following its victory in the 1967 Six-Day War.