Israel’s prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has unequivocally ruled out the establishment of a Palestinian state as he vowed to strengthen construction of settlements in occupied east Jerusalem should he be re-elected on Tuesday.
Netanyahu’s comments reinforced his hardening message of recent days and confirmed his final abandonment of his at best tepid commitment to a two-state solution designed to see the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
His remarks were made in an interview with a website owned by US casino magnate Sheldon Adelson - Netanyahu’s biggest backer - and were being viewed by his political opponents as a last-ditch effort to sway voters away from the rival far-right Jewish Home party of Naftali Bennett.
“I think that anyone who moves to establish a Palestinian state and evacuate territory gives territory away to radical Islamist attacks against Israel,” Netanyahu said. “The left has buried its head in the sand time and after time and ignores this, but we are realistic and understand.”
When asked if that meant a Palestinian state would not be established if he is elected, Netanyahu replied: “Indeed.”
While his remarks will be seen in large part as election rhetoric designed to cement his standing with his country’s hard right at a time when Netanyahu has been struggling in his campaign, they will further strain relations with the US and other key allies should he win a third consecutive term.
Netanyahu’s remarks signalled the most comprehensive rebuttal of his 2009 Bar-Ilan speech when he committed himself to a two state solution and the creation of a Palestinian state.
He added “You can’t carry out the things that were laid out in the Bar Ilan speech... when all you have on the other side is terror. There are no forces for peace, no partner for peace,” he said.
“This speech was given before the Arab storm - the so-called Arab spring - which has overwhelmed the Middle East bringing with it radical Islam. Any territory which would be handed over would be taken over by radical Islamists.”
Despite that speech, as critics have noted, Netanyahu had done little to advance movement towards that goal, while settlement building increased during his premiership.
The comments appear bound to set him at odds with most of the international community including Israel’s main ally, the US, should he emerge at the head of the Israeli government for a further term when votes are counted.
In the last two days of the campaign Netanyahu has tacked sharply right in a effort to secure re-election, addressing a rally in Tel Aviv organised by hardline pro-settlement activists and visiting the settlement at Har Homa in occupied east Jerusalem.
His comments came as leaders of Israel’s political parties made their final appeals to voters on Monday on the eve of an election widely seen as a referendum on the leadership of prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
In a vote that has been presented as a stark choice between two contrasting visions for the country’s future, millions of Israelis will head to the polling stations across the country on Tuesday in what has been a close and bitterly fought campaign.
The final opinion polls – released on Friday ahead of a four-day moratorium on publishing surveys of voter intentions – put the centre-left Zionist Union, headed by opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog and former peace negotiator Tzipi Livni, ahead with 25 to 26 seats, and Netanyahu’s Likud taking 20 to 22 in the 120-seat Knesset.
Amid warnings from Netanyahu to his supporters that he risks being voted out as prime minister – and his claims of the existence of a well-funded conspiracy involving Israeli leftists and foreign governments to depose him – Likud has spent the past few days targeting those intending to vote for the rival right-wing parties.
Netanyahu has based his campaign on security issues, largely ignoring economic issues that have played a central role in campaigning by the centre-left Zionist Union and several other parties.
At stake – according to Israeli analysts – are a handful of seats that many believe could define the outcome of an election too close to call.
Visiting his party headquarters, an upbeat Herzog talked about a “crucial” vote for the country and warned against splitting the anti-Netanyahu vote among the various centrist parties, including charismatic leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid Party.
“Whoever wants an upheaval has to vote for us,” he added.
Since its first election in 1949 no Israeli party has won an outright majority and the complexities of its electoral system mean that often the leader who can assemble the most stable coalition – not necessarily the party with the most seats – gets to form a government.
While polls suggest that Netanyahu might find it easier to assemble more mandates for a right-wing coalition, this election – called in early December – has a number of new variables including the emergence of a new centre-right party, Kulanu, whose leader Moshe Kahlon, a former Likud minister, has kept a close counsel over whom he might back for prime minister.
On Sunday, Netanyahu offered Kahlon the finance portfolio to Kahlon, who immediately dismissed the overture as “spin”.
Two other small parties – the leftwing Meretz and Yisrael Beiteinu, led by rightwing foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman – stand on the verge of failing to make the electoral threshold for representation, which could also affect the outcome.
Netanyahu made one of his last stops in his campaign in occupied east Jerusalem as he sought to persuade hard-right supporters drifting to other rightwing parties.
Visiting the settlement at Har Homa, Netanyahu vowed to preserve Jerusalem’s unity “in all its parts” and said he would “continue to build and fortify” the city to prevent any future division.
Netanyahu’s Likud party has been lagging in opinion polls, and he has stepped up his nationalist rhetoric in the final days of the campaign.
“The choice is symbolic: the Likud led by me, that will continue to stand firmly for [Israel’s] vital interests, compared with a leftwing government ... ready to accept any dictate,” he told residents.
Netanyahu’s visit to Har Homa followed his appearance at a rally in Tel Aviv attended largely by settlers and national religious voters, in a move some commentators warned might backfire.
Among them was usually right-leaning Ben-Dror Yemini, writing in the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, who noted that Netanyahu has spoken not at a Likud rally but at one representing largely settler and national religious interests.
“He spoke at the rightwing rally. This is a rally that projected a very clear, very nationalist, very belligerent message. No withdrawal. No compromise. No Palestinian state… From the moment he decided to hold elections, Netanyahu veered rightwards,” he added.
