Romney: ‘Palestinians no interest in peace’

JERUSALEM – Mitt Romney, the US Republican presidential candidate, has said that Palestinians want to see Israel destroyed.

He spoke of the “Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel”. This situation contributes to his view that as far as the two-state solution, “there’s just no way”.

Romney made the comments at a private event for fundraisers in the US, and they were made public in a video published on Tuesday on liberal news site Mother Jones. According to the site, the event was held in May.

He said: “Some might say, well, let’s let the Palestinians have the West Bank and have security, and set up a separate nation for the Palestinians. And then come a couple of thorny questions.

“And I don’t have a map here to look at the geography, but the border between Israel and the West Bank is obviously right there, right next to Tel Aviv, which is the financial capital, the industrial capital of Israel, the centre of Israel. It’s what the border would be? Maybe seven miles from Tel Aviv to what would be the West Bank.”

Iran “would want to do through the West Bank exactly what they did through Lebanon, what they did near Gaza. Which is that the Iranians would want to bring missiles and armament into the West Bank and potentially threaten Israel”. The security problems posed by a two-state solution scenario are major and, combined with what he sees as Palestinian unwillingness, lead him to his bleak outlook, he said.

Romney appeared to throw his support behind what is known in Israel as the “conflict management” option, saying: “You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognise that this is going to remain an unsolved problem. We live with that in China and Taiwan. All right, we have a potentially volatile situation, but we sort of live with it, and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it.”

Describing Romney’s assertions as “completely unacceptable”, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Reuters: “No-one stands to gain more from peace with Israel than Palestinians and no-one stands to lose more in the absence of peace than Palestinians.

“Only those who want to maintain the Israeli occupation will claim the Palestinians are not interested in peace.”

NATHAN JEFFAY