Faced with growing criticism from the far-right over a reported peace deal proposal, Israeli ruling party Likud issued a statement nationwide to synagogues in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out the two-state solution.

“Any evacuated territory will be overtaken by radical Islam and terror groups backed by Iran. Therefore there will be no withdrawals and no concessions. It’s just not relevant,” the statement read.

The Likud statement went on to say that Netanyahu’s 2009 declaration of support for a two-state solution was “annulled” adding that Netanyahu’s entire political career “is the struggle against the establishment of the Palestinian state.”

The statement prompted criticism from the Israeli left, leading Netanyahu to bizarrely deny that he’d ever made such comments as were attributed to him in the statement released by his own party.

Netanyahu is struggling, as usual, with his attempts to campaign on both sides of the fence, positioning himself, for the sake of far-right voters, as an ultrahawk with no designs on peace, and for the sake of centrist voters as a reasonable moderate.

Ultimately, these attempts alienate both sides, positioning himself as either a failed peacemaker or a failed warmaker, or some combination thereof.