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Benjamin Netanyahu, taking office as Israel's new leader Tuesday, promised to seek "full peace" with the Arab and Muslim world, but refused to utter the words the world was waiting to hear: "Palestinian state." The well-spoken, U.S.-educated hawk took pains to portray himself as a pragmatist, telling a packed parliament that Israel does not want to rule the Palestinians.
"Under the permanent status agreement, the Palestinians will have all the authority to rule themselves," Netanyahu said in comments that appeared to hark back to a decades-old notion that peace could be achieved through limited Palestinian autonomy.
His words drew a sharp reaction from Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. "I want to say to Mr. Netanyahu that the only way the Palestinians can rule themselves, by themselves, is through ending the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 and establishing an independent Palestinian state," Erekat said.
Netanyahu's refusal to embrace the idea of Palestinian statehood could put him at odds with the Obama administration and much of the rest of the world. So could his decision to appoint ultranationalist politician Avigdor Lieberman as foreign minister.
In recent days, however, Netanyahu has moved to soften his image, welcoming the centrist Labor party into an otherwise markedly right-wing coalition and announcing that he supports peace talks with the Palestinians.
The 59-year-old politician — the son of a prominent historian and the brother of a war hero who died commanding the daring 1976 hostage rescue at Entebbe, Uganda — is returning to the premiership a decade after being forced from it amid a string of failures.
In his speech before parliament Tuesday, Netanyahu praised Islamic culture as "great and rich," and said Israel and moderate Arab states could find common ground fighting radical Islam and what he called the extremist regime in Tehran.
"Israel has always, and today more than ever, striven to reach full peace with the entire Arab and Muslim world," he said.
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