“We want a genuine peace and not a virtual peace,” Binyamin Netanyahu told American Jewish leaders.
Improving the economy, thereby giving people jobs and hope, will bring about real peace, the head of the opposition and former prime minister said during an address Monday to the 34th annual Leadership Mission of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Israel.
Netanyahu said Israel’s hasty withdrawals from Lebanon and Gaza brought militant Islam directly to the Jewish state’s doorstep.
“The Israeli withdrawal from Gaza has in no way advanced our security or brought us any closer to a real peace,” he said. “If we withdraw from Jerusalem, a possibility that seems to be more of a reality each day, it will just put us one step closer to being forced out of the whole country.”
The leaders of the 51 national American Jewish organizations in the Conference of Presidents are in Israel to discuss critical issues and challenges facing Israel and the Jewish world with the country’s top governmental and military officials, business leaders, experts and opinion molders.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
