“From the river to the sea”: Netanyahu says he rejected Biden’s call for Palestinian state after war

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday vowed to oppose a Palestinian state in any post-war scenario. Netanyahu’s comments underscored the growing rift between the Israeli and U.S. governments. The Biden administration has supported Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 24,000 people, according to Palestinian authorities, but has called on Israel to scale back its attacks and said the establishment of a Palestinian state should be part of the “day after” the war.

Netanyahu, who has long opposed the formation of a Palestinian state, rejected any such notion on Thursday.

“This conflict is not about the lack of a state of Palestinians but the existence of a Jewish state,” he said, according to a translation from i24News. “Every area we evacuate, we receive terrible terror… and therefore I clarify that in any arrangement, in the future the state of Israel has to control the from the river to the sea,” he continued, repeating a phrase that Israeli supporters have claimed is a call for genocide when used by pro-Palestinian supporters.

“This is what happens when you have sovereignty,” Netanyahu said. “I say to my American friends, stop trying to impose on us a reality that will jeopardize us. A prime minister of Israel has to be able to say ‘no’ even to the best of friends.”

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller on Thursday reaffirmed that “there is no way to solve [Israel’s] long-term challenges to provide lasting security and there is no way to solve the short-term challenges of rebuilding Gaza and establishing governance in Gaza and providing security for Gaza without the establishment of a Palestinian state.”