Israeli science minister denounces prospect of Palestinian state

Speaking strongly against the establishment of a Palestinian state, Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud ) said at The Jerusalem Post’s New York conference that “Jews have had a connection to the Land of Israel before anyone else was walking on this land.”A Palestinian state would place a direct security risk on all the citizens of Israel. “We don’t need another terrorist state in the Middle East,” he said. “Israel needs stable and defendable borders... i promise you, so long as i am elected in my country, a Palestinian state will not be created,” Akunis declared.While late, former president Shimon Peres for years spoke of a New Middle East, said Akunis, indeed there has developed a “new” one, but only for the worse, as more and more organizations deny the Jews’ connection to Jerusalem and and its homeland. It is an Arab winter and not an Arab spring," he insisted.