The news that the United States and Israel are planning to hold discreet negotiations on the reopening of the U.S. Consulate for Palestinian Arabs in Jerusalem is "outrageous," Yair Netanyahu, the son of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Newsmax Friday.
"This is a present that this administration is giving to the Palestinians who just two weeks ago had their formal manifesto published, calling for the annihilation of Israel and the genocide of all the Jews that living in Israel," Netanyahu said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America."
"This is the present of this administration to the Palestinians that celebrated 9/11, that are persecuting Christians, that are persecuting gays, that are having no human rights and democracy in their territories and are funding terrorists with about a quarter of the budget of the Palestinian Authority," he continued. "This is a slap in the face of the most trusted and loyal ally of the United States, Israel, and this is unacceptable."
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid discussed the consulate issue on Wednesday, reports Axios.
The consulate was downgraded to the Palestinian Affairs Unit under former President Donald Trump and then merged with the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem that opened in May 2018, after he recognized the city as Israel's capital.
"Israel doesn't have any better and stronger ally than the United States, but the current administration is sadly preferring the enemies of the United States at the expense of their allies," said Netanyahu.
Meanwhile, Israel is approving the construction of 4,400 new homes in the West Bank next week, and Netanyahu agreed that could spur conflict because "the Palestinians don't accept the Jews living in Israel, period, in any boundaries in any place. The only acceptable solution for the Palestinians, as they published it, is the annihilation of every single Jew in the Holy Land."
Netanyahu also slammed Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, saying that he "has no power because he barely passes the threshold of being elected to the parliament ... he's just a puppet prime minister."
He said his father, who celebrated his 72nd birthday Thursday, is continuing with his "first mission and most important mission" to bring down Bennett's administration and bring in the new elections "that all the polls show that he's going to win big time."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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