Prime Minister Netanyahu during an interview. Photo: Screenshot.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that the Palestinian Authority bid for United Nations recognition “will not change a thing, and certainly won’t hasten the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

“Israel’s hand is perpetually extended toward peace, but no Palestinian state will exist without recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people. No Palestinian state will exist without a declaration of an end to hostilities, and no Palestinian state will exist without real security arrangements that will protect the State of Israel and its citizens. None of these things are remotely mentioned in the Palestinian petition to the UN,” Netanyahu said in a statement, according to Israel Hayom.

“There is only one way peace can be achieved,” he continued. “Through direct negotiation between the sides without preconditions, not through unilateral UN resolutions that don’t take Israel’s existence and security into account at all. Peace will be achieved through understandings between Jerusalem and Ramallah, not detached declarations at the UN.”