Ambassador Dermer: Palestinian State with Hamas Ties Would be Terror State

Any two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians that doesn't force Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to cut ties with Hamas would simply create another terror state on Israel's border, said Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer on "Meet the Press" Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the same in recent days following his re-election victory on Tuesday. Netanyahu has been forced to walk back statements he made on the eve of the election that there would be no Palestinian state as long as he is prime minister.

That statement prompted the Obama White House to say it is reassessing the peace process and hinted it might stop the United States' long policy of blocking U.N. Security Council votes to recognize a Palestinian state.

Dermer on Sunday reiterated Netanyahu's words that he was referring only to the current situation with the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu is critical of Abbas for uniting with the terrorist group Hamas a year ago, and wants Abbas to break off relations with the group.

"Our concern," Dermer said, "is that a Palestinian state today would be a Palestinian terror state."

He said Israel left Lebanon in 2000, but instead of getting peace got an Iranian terror base on its northern border. Then it left Gaza in 2005 and got a terror base on its southern border.

"Now Iran's leaders are saying in the last few weeks that they are going to arm Palestinians in the West Bank to launch terror attacks against Israel," Dermer said. "That the prime minister is not willing to agree to."

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinians' permanent observer to the United Nations, told "Meet the Press" he saw no reason to sever ties with Hamas.

Netanyahu complained before the alignment that Abbas didn't represent all Palestinians, and now that the deal has been made with Hamas complains that they are aligned with a terror group, Mansour said.

He also balked at Netanyahu's demand that a Palestinian state would recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

Mansour said the PA already has agreed to recognize the state of Israel, and that the new wording is a new condition.

"They cannot demand from us things and impose conditions on us," he said. "We belong to this land, we have a long history in that land."

But Dermer also pointed to instability in the region, where al-Qaida and the Islamic State (ISIS) are taking over territory. ISIS is only 18 miles away from Israel's northern border, he said.

"Israel is in favor of a Palestinian state that would end the conflict with Israel," Dermer said. "We're not in favor of a Palestinian state that will continue to wage war against Israel."

The only way to reach peace is to have the parties at the negotiating table," Dermer said, adding that a United Nations resolution would do the exact opposite.

"It will harden Palestinian positions and prevent us not only from having peace today, it could prevent peace for decades to come because no Palestinian leader will move from those positions that are going the be put forward at the United Nations," he said.

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