Netanyahu’s apology rejected by Arab party

Israel’s only Arab party, the Joint List – which won 90 per cent of the Arab vote – has rejected prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s apology following his election day plea to Jewish voters to vote in response to the Israeli Arabs, who he claimed were “voting in droves”.

“Sadly the racism of Netanyahu and his government did not start with this statement and it surely will not be its end,” the party said.

“Racist and exclusionary legislation are part of Netanyahu’s work plan for the next Knesset, and thus we have no choice but to reject this apology and continue our struggle for equality. His ‘apology’ is just empty words intended to preserve his racist regime.”

Mr Netanyahu won the March 17th election with a convincing majority. On Wednesday evening he will be formally tasked with forming the next government by president Reuven Rivlin.

No offence

He said he had meant no offence in his election day comments. “I know that the things I said offended some of the citizens of Israel, offended the Arab Israelis. That was not my intention. I regret that,” he told a group of Israeli Arabs.

He also claimed the “massive investment” by the government in minority sectors was proof that he had helped Israeli Arabs. “I regard myself as prime minister of each and every one of you, of all of Israel’s citizens, regardless of religion, race or gender.”

Mr Netanyahu’s comments marked the second occasion in which he backtracked from comments made during the campaign and followed severe criticism from US president Barack Obama as Washington carries out a reassessment of its relations with Israel.

Last week, alluding to his promise of no Palestinian state if he was re-elected, Mr Netanyahu clarified that he still supported a two-state solution but only when the “conditions were right”.

State department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said it was difficult to interpret Mr Netanyahu’s comments.

She said: “When he says one thing one day and another thing another day it’s impossible to tell if he’s sincere.”

End the occupation

White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said Israel could not continue to maintain control over another people indefinitely, and that it was time to end the occupation. He said that settlement activity undermined the prospects for peace, whereas peace would strengthen Israel.

Mr McDonough said the US would never stop working for a two-state solution, and that it was impossible to pretend Mr Netanyahu’s statements had not been said. He stressed that Washington would never support the annexation of the West Bank, and warned that such a scenario could lead to Israel’s total isolation.

In a separate development Israeli officials have denied a Wall Street Journal report that Israel spied for more than a year on closed-door nuclear talks between the P5+1 world powers and Iran, and shared the information with members of Congress in order to convince them not to support the emerging deal.

Intelligence minister Yuval Steinitz said the report was false: “Whoever published those false allegations possibly wanted to damage the excellent intelligence co-operation between us and the US.”