JERUSALEM (AP) - Days after winning re-election, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday backtracked from hard-line statements against the establishment of a Palestinian state in the face of a diplomatic backlash.
In the closing days of his campaign, Netanyahu said there could be no Palestinian state while regional violence and chaos persist - conditions that could rule out progress on the issue for many years. The comments, aimed at appealing to his nationalist voter base, angered the Obama administration, which views a two-state solution as a top foreign policy priority.
Netanyahu said in a TV interview Thursday that he remains committed to Palestinian statehood - if conditions in the region improve -- and to the two-state vision first spelled out in a landmark 2009 speech at Israel's Bar Ilan University.
"I haven't changed my policy," he said in a full interview with MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports," excerpts of which will be shown on NBC's "Nightly News" later on. "I never retracted my speech."
At the time, he said he would agree to a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes Israel as a Jewish state. The Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has recognized Israel as a state but refuses to recognize its Jewish character, and last year formed a unity government backed by the Hamas militant group, which is sworn to Israel's destruction.
