Binyamin Netanyahu demands 'crippling' of Hamas

Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's rightwing opposition leader and favourite to win next month's elections, said today Israel needed a "clear victory" against Hamas and that the movement should "ultimately be removed" from Gaza.

He called for a victory against the Islamist movement "that will cripple its capability" to attack. "At a minimum, the firing of rockets must stop and the smuggling corridors that have enabled Hamas to smuggle thousands of rockets into Gaza must be sealed," he told a news conference. "We are fighting a just war, perhaps the most just war there is."

Netanyahu has seen his large opinion poll lead eroded since the start of the conflict 18 days ago, while support has grown for his rivals Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister, and Ehud Barak, the defence minister. Although the outcome of the conflict is likely to shift political opinion again, Netanyahu remains ahead for now.

He has made it clear that halting Iran's nuclear ambitions will be a priority and he described Hamas in Gaza as a proxy Iranian force. He rejected a peace treaty with Hamas, which he said would only legitimise the movement and give "immunity to terror".

He said Israel should not unilaterally withdraw from more territory, including the Golan Heights and parts of the West Bank, which were both captured and occupied in the 1967 war.

The peace process with the Palestinians could not succeed, he said, and instead there should be economic investment – what he calls "economic peace" – in the Palestinian territories rather than negotiations on the core issues of a final agreement.

He stopped short of endorsing a two-state solution that would create an independent Palestinian state, saying there were models other than complete sovereignty. "I would make sure that the Palestinians have the means to govern themselves but not to threaten the survival of the state of Israel," he said.

The Guardian