By Debbie Reiss, World Israel News
Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Thursday broke United Nations history and became the first Israeli leader to hail the two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, prompting an outcry from lawmakers to the right of him who accused him of endangering the Jewish state.
“An agreement with the Palestinians, based on two states for two peoples, is the right thing for Israel’s security, for Israel’s economy and for the future of our children,” he said at the UN General Assembly in New York.
“Despite all the obstacles, still today a large majority of Israelis support the vision of this two-state solution. I am one of them.”
He went on to say that a future Palestinian state must not become “another terror base from which to threaten the well being, and the very existence of Israel.”
“We will have the ability to protect the security of all the citizens of Israel, at all times,” he said.
“You can ask us to live according to the values in the UN Charter, but you cannot ask us to die for them,” he added. “We want to live in peace but only if it gives us security, not if it threatens us even more.”