Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told lobbyists in Washington Tuesday that Palestinians should recognize Israel as a Jewish state and for Palestinian leadership to "abandon fantasies" related to right of return, according to Agence France Presse Tuesday.
Netanyahu's comments, which came during a speech in front of a pro-Israel event hosted by the AIPAC lobbying group in Washington, called on Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to "tell his people to abandon the fantasy of flooding Israel with refugees," and described signing a peace deal as a threat to Jewish security.
If Israel signed a peace agreement it would "most certainly come under attack by Hezbollah, Hamas, Al Qaeda and others. This means the Jewish state must keep security in its own hands," said the Israeli prime minister.
The Jewish leader also mentioned the international movement to boycott Israel, known as the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign in his commentary, telling the audience that such efforts "will fail" and will not prevent Tel Aviv from "becoming an economic powerhouse."
"The movement is nothing but a farce. It will fail," he said.
