JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Israel’s Arab citizens Monday for remarks made during last week’s election. The move appeared to be an attempt to heal rifts and mute criticism at home and in the United States. Netanyahu drew accusations of racism in Israel and a White House rebuke when, just a few hours before polling stations were to close across the country, he warned that Arab citizens were voting “in droves.”
In the final days of the campaign, Netanyahu angered the U.S. by taking a tough stance toward the Palestinians by saying a Palestinian state will not be established on his watch in the current climate of regional chaos and violence.
Netanyahu told NBC on Thursday that he remains committed to Palestinian statehood — if conditions in the region improve — and to the two-state vision first spelled out in a landmark 2009 speech at Israel’s Bar Ilan University.
President Barack Obama’s chief of staff says the U.S. can’t simply pretend Netanyahu didn’t reject the possibility of a Palestinian state. Denis McDonough says Netanyahu’s contradictory answers call into question his commitment to a two-state solution.
