Netanyahu: Palestinians must recognize Jewish homeland

TEL AVIV, Israel, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish homeland if peace is to be achieved, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said.

"For the [peace] process in which we find ourselves to be significant, ... for it to have a real chance of success, it is necessary to hear the Palestinian leadership finally say that it recognizes the right of the Jewish people to a state of its own, which is the state of Israel," Netanyahu told Bar Ilan University's Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies Sunday. "I hope that it shall be so, so that we can advance a real solution to the conflict."

Netanyahu said Palestinians must give up their demand for the return of refugees to areas inside Israel and Israel's security needs must be addressed, Ynetnews.com reported.

"After generations of incitement we have no confidence that recognition [of Israel] will trickle down to the Palestinian people. Therefore, we need very strong security arrangements, and to go forward without blindness," the prime minister said.

"The root of the conflict is the deep resistance among a hard core of Palestinians to the right of the Jewish people to its own state in Israel."