section_path: Political positions/Israeli–Palestinian conflict
section_name: Israeli–Palestinian conflict
paragraph_text: Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  
  Netanyahu opposed the Oslo Accords from their inception. In 1993, he dedicated a chapter, entitled "Trojan Horse", of his book A Place Among the Nations to argue against the Oslo peace process. He asserted that Amin al-Husseini had been one of the masterminds of the Holocaust, and that Yasser Arafat was heir to the former's "alleged exterminationist Nazism". During his term as prime minister in the late 1990s, Netanyahu consistently reneged on commitments made by previous Israeli governments as part of the Oslo peace process, leading American peace envoy Dennis Ross to note that "neither President Clinton nor Secretary Albright believed that Bibi had any real interest in pursuing peace." In a 2001 video, Netanyahu, reportedly unaware he was being recorded, said:
  
  They asked me before the election if I'd honor I said I would, but... I'm going to interpret the accords in such a way that would allow me to put an end to this galloping forward to the '67 borders. How did we do it? Nobody said what defined military zones were. Defined military zones are security zones; as far as I'm concerned, the entire Jordan Valley is a defined military zone. Go argue.
  
  On 9 August 2009, speaking at the opening of his weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu promised not to repeat the "mistake" of the Gaza unilateral pullout, saying, "We will not repeat this mistake. We will not create new evacuees", and adding that "the unilateral evacuation brought neither peace nor security. On the contrary", and that "We want an agreement with two factors, the first of which is the recognition of Israel as the national state of the Jewish people and a security settlement. In the case of Gaza, both of these factors were lacking". He also said, "Should we achieve a turn toward peace with the more moderate partners, we will insist on the recognition of the State of Israel and the demilitarization of the future Palestinian state". In October 2014, Netanyahu said:
  
  We don't just hand over territory, close our eyes and hope for the best. We did that in Lebanon and we got thousands of rockets. We did that in Gaza, we got Hamas and 15,000 rockets. So we're not gonna just replicate that. We want to see genuine recognition of the Jewish state and rock solid security arrangements on the ground. That's the position I've held, and it's only become firmer.
  
  Netanyahu had previously called U.S.-backed peace talks a waste of time, while at the same time refusing to commit to the same two-state solution as had other Israeli leaders, until a speech in June 2009. He repeatedly made public statements which advocated an "economic peace" approach, meaning an approach based on economic cooperation and joint effort rather than continuous contention over political and diplomatic issues. This is in line with many significant ideas from the Peace Valley plan. He raised these ideas during discussions with former U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. Netanyahu continued to advocate these ideas as the Israeli elections approached. Netanyahu has said:
  
  Right now, the peace talks are based on only one thing, only on peace talks. It makes no sense at this point to talk about the most contractible issue. It's Jerusalem or bust, or right of return or bust. That has led to failure and is likely to lead to failure again... We must weave an economic peace alongside a political process. That means that we have to strengthen the moderate parts of the Palestinian economy by handing rapid growth in those areas, rapid economic growth that gives a stake for peace for the ordinary Palestinians."
  
  In January 2009, prior to the February 2009 Israeli elections Netanyahu informed Middle East envoy Tony Blair that he would continue the policy of the Israeli governments of Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert by expanding settlements in the West Bank, in contravention of the Road Map, but not building new ones.
  
  Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas. This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.
  
  In 2013, Netanyahu denied reports that his government would agree to peace talks on the basis of the green line. In 2014 he agreed to the American framework based on the green line and said that Jewish settlers must be allowed the option of staying in their settlements under Palestinian rule.
  
  In 2014, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat criticized Netanyahu, calling him "ideologically corrupt" and a war criminal.
  
  For years, Netanyahu backed Qatari transfers of hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza, in the hope that it would pacify Gaza, turn Hamas into an effective counterweight to the Palestinian Authority and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. In 2019, Netanyahu said at a private Likud party meeting, "Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas. This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank." Often, cash was delivered in suitcases by a Qatari official who was escorted by Israeli intelligence officers. According to the New York Times, Netanyahu continued backing the payments in response to Qatari questions as late as September 2023. In 2025, Shin Beth started an investigation into the alleged ties between Netanyahu's advisors and Qatar.
  
  In January 2020, Netanyahu publicly supported Trump's Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. After the peace proposal failed, Trump said Netanyahu "never wanted peace" with the Palestinians.
  
  Former United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stated that on 22 May 2017, Netanyahu showed Donald Trump a fake and altered video of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas calling for the killing of children. This was at a time when Trump was considering if Israel was the obstacle to peace. Netanyahu had showed Trump the fake video to change his position in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
  
  The U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords agreed to the full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (the Israel–United Arab Emirates normalization agreement) and Bahrain, respectively (the Bahrain–Israel normalization agreement). This was the first time any Arab country had normalized relations with Israel since Jordan in 1994. The accords were signed by Bahrain's foreign minister, UAE's foreign minister and Netanyahu on 15 September 2020 at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C.
  
  On 23 October 2020, U.S. president Donald Trump announced that Sudan will start to normalize ties with Israel, making it the third Arab state to do so as part of the Trump administration-brokered Abraham Accords. Sudan fought in wars against Israel in 1948 and 1967. Netanyahu thanked "President Trump and his team above all", saying that "together with him we are changing history... despite all the experts and commentators who said it was impossible. Israel was completely isolated and they told us we were heading into a political tsunami. What's happening is the absolute opposite." This was followed by Morocco establishing relations with Israel in December. In July 2024, Pakistan officially designated him a "terrorist", calling him responsible for the atrocities in Gaza.