Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said if Palestine fails to realize its statehood, Israel could no longer survive alone, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Thursday.
"If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African style struggle for equal voting rights (also for the Palestinians in the territories), then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished," Olmert told Haaretz.
"The Jewish organizations, which were our power base in America, will be the first to come out against us" as they "will say they cannot support a state that does not support democracy and equal voting rights for all its residents," said Olmert.
Olmert also said the Annapolis conference on Middle East peace "met more than we could have defined as the Israeli expectations," but noting the upcoming negotiations will be difficult and complex which will "require a very great deal of patience and sophistication."
The Israeli leader left the United States for home after the Annapolis conference. The peace meeting, initiated by U.S. President George W. Bush, drew representatives of more than 40 countries, regions and international organizations at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland on Tuesday.
Source: Xinhua
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