Netanyahu wanted to ‘make peace with his neighbours’ before a two-state solution

The Australian Foreign Editor Greg Sheridan says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to “make peace with his neighbours” before giving Palestinian leadership control of Palestine. At least 492 people have been killed after Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon in what is being called the deadliest day in the country since 2006. Around 1,300 targets have been struck, with Israel accusing them of housing Hezbollah weapons. “In my piece today, I outline that Benjamin Netanyahu had a different vision for Palestinian peace,” Mr Sheridan told Sky News Australia. “He wanted to make peace with his neighbours first, create a period of normalisation and then, after a period of normalisation, he would be happy to hand over control and even sovereignty of a Palestinian state to Palestinian leadership. “Iran desperately wanted to disturb that initiative, and that was going great guns under the Abraham Accords. Israel had made peace with a lot of neighbours and was about to secure the big prize of a peace treaty with Saudi Arabia.”