Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had received firm commitments from the Palestinian Authority (PA) including to demilitarise, hold general elections and continue to recognise Israel’s right to exist, the BBC reports. “A two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza,” he said.
Israel has long maintained recognising a Palestinian state “rewards terrorism” and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticised international calls to recognise Palestinian statehood just as Canberra announced its move, saying it would “not bring peace, it will bring war.”
“To have European countries and Australia march into that rabbit hole, just like that, fall right into it and buy this canard is disappointing, and I think it’s actually shameful,” Netanyahu said. A senior Hamas official said earlier this month the growing number of western states that say they will recognize a Palestinian state in September is proof of the effectiveness of terror, as Breitbart News reported. (Read More)
