• Handing over territories within the framework of the solution of two states for two peoples does not constitute the solution for the end of the conflict and security calm. In 2005, we handed over Gush Katif to the Palestinians, in light of claims identical to those proposed at the basis of the solution of two states for two
  • peoples, which brought the range of Hamas rockets closer to the center of the country.
  • There will be those who claim that this agreement was unilateral and that no negotiations were conducted with the other side (Hamas) and therefore it did not work, and as evidence, there are examples according to which the “territories for peace” model did work, such as for example in Egypt. This claim is unfounded:
      1. Hamas is not a sovereign state but rather a terrorist organization.
      2. Egypt does not call for the destruction of the State of Israel while the Palestinian Authority encourages terrorist activity against the citizens of Israel and incites in its textbooks against the State of Israel.
      3. An agreement signed with the Palestinian Authority should be taken with limited liability: there is a Muslim principle that perceives a peace agreement as an intermediate point towards a better strategic position in the next battle – without hesitation to tell a lie. For example, half a year after signing the Oslo Accords, Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, gave a speech regarding the Oslo Accords. In the speech, Arafat emphatically referred to Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Palestine, asserted that the Jihad must continue until the conquest of Jerusalem, and that the Oslo Accords are equal in meaning to the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah: a cease-fire agreement signed by the Prophet Muhammad with the Qurayshi tribe before he massacred them. In doing so, he created a historical precedent, where a signed agreement can only be a temporary agreement, which can be changed or canceled.
      4. The relinquishment of Sinai did not harm Israel strategically, and it cannot be compared to narrowing the country’s waistline dramatically which will happen with the handing over of territories in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley.