(JNS.org) During a meeting with Israeli Foreign Ministry officials on Wednesday, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he still backs the principles of his famous 2009 Bar Ilan University address, including the establishment of a Palestinian state that recognizes Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. During the 2009 speech, Netanyahu for the first time publicly declared his willingness to accept “a demilitarized Palestinian state side by side with the Jewish state.”

“The root of the conflict isn’t territorial,” Netanyahu reiterated. “It began long before 1967. You saw what happened when we left Gaza [in 2005]. We evacuated every settlement and what did we get? Missiles. The unwillingness of the Palestinians to recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people is the root of the conflict. If we reach a peace agreement, I want to know that the conflict won’t continue, that there won’t be more Palestinian demands later.”