PM Netanyahu's Remarks at the Start of the Weekly Cabinet Meeting
(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the following remarks at the start of
the weekly Cabinet meeting, today (Sunday, 23 November 2014):

"Last night US Secretary of State John Kerry updated me on the situation in
the nuclear talks with Iran. We are anxiously monitoring developments in
these talks. We are holding discussions with the representatives of other
major powers and are presenting them with a vigorous position to the effect
that Iran must not be allowed to be determined as a nuclear threshold state.
There is no reason why it should be left with thousands of centrifuges that
could enable it to enrich uranium for a nuclear bomb in a short time.
Neither is there any reason why Iran should continue to develop
intercontinental missiles, which could carry nuclear warheads, and thereby
threaten the entire world. Therefore, no agreement at all would be
preferable to a bad agreement that would endanger Israel, the Middle East
and all of humanity.

Over the weekend I instructed Cabinet Secretary Avichai Mendelbit, along
with Interior Minister Gilad Erdan, to submit draft legislation to revoke
rights from residents who participate in terrorism or incitement against the
State of Israel. It cannot be that those who attack Israeli citizens and
call for the elimination of the State of Israel will enjoy rights such as
National Insurance, and their family members as well, who support them. This
law is important in order to exact a price from those who engage in attacks
and incitement, including the throwing of stones and firebombs, and it
complements the demolition of terrorists' homes, and helps to create
deterrence vis-à-vis those who engage in attacks and incitement.

Today, I will submit to the Cabinet the nationality law and the principles
that I believe need to guide this legislation. The State of Israel is the
national state of the Jewish People. It has equal individual rights for
every citizen and we insist on this. But only the Jewish People have
national rights: A flag, anthem, the right of every Jew to immigrate to the
country, and other national symbols. These are granted only to our people,
in its one and only state.

I hear from people who say 'Who needs this law? We've managed without it for
66 years.' And I ask: Who needed Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty? We
managed without it for 45 years. But both are necessary. Israel is a Jewish
and democratic state. There are those who would like the democratic to
prevail over the Jewish and there are those who would like the Jewish to
prevail over the democratic. And in the principles of the law that I will
submit today both of these values are equal and both must be considered to
the same degree.

This law is also needed now for another reason: There are many who are
challenging Israel's character as the national state of the Jewish people.
The Palestinians refuse to recognize this and there is also opposition from
within. There are those – including those who deny our national rights – who
would like to establish autonomy in the Galilee and the Negev. Neither do I
understand those who are calling for two states for two peoples but who also
oppose anchoring this in law. They are pleased to recognize a Palestinian
national state but strongly oppose a Jewish national state.

On the eve of last Independence Day, I stood in the hall where the
Declaration of Independence was signed in Tel Aviv and I promised to submit
this legislation to the Cabinet and I am doing so today. I have not softened
it and I have not changed anything. I have submitted the principles of the
law that I believe in, the same principles that appear in the Declaration of
Independence, the same principles that I absorbed in the Zionist sprit from
my father, who absorbed them from Zeev Jabotinsky and from Binyamin Zeev
Herzl.

Around the nationality law, and around other issues, I hear ultimatums,
diktat and threats of quitting from various parts of the coalition; a
country cannot be run this way. We must concentrate on strengthening
security against waves of extremist Islam and the Iranian nuclear danger, on
strengthening Israel's economy and increasing citizens' welfare – and not on
threats. I believe that the heads of the parties in the coalition will unite
and work in this spirit."