Recent changes in the Middle East have given “leading Arab countries” a major role to play in achieving an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today in remarks at the Center for American Progress.

He made his point while explaining Israel’s need for a “long-term security presence” in the West Bank in any comprehensive peace deal. Netanyahu pointed out that after Israel withdrew from Gaza, the terrorist group Hamas took over and used the area to fire thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians. “To avoid another Gaza, you need to make sure the Palestinian state is not committed to Israel’s destruction, that it recognizes Israel and does not seek to flood it with descendants of refugees,” he said. “What happens if things go awry? What happens if [the West Bank] is taken over the way Gaza’s been taken over?” Israel would need a long-term security presence to make sure that didn’t happen, but could not rely on international peacekeepers, who in recent years have abandoned their posts in the Golan Heights in the face of the Syrian Civil War.

It would therefore be the “right formula” for Israeli security forces to have freedom of operation in a demilitarized Palestinian state, similarly to how Germany and Japan were demilitarized as part of a post-war peace process. “Can this happen?” Netanyahu asked rhetorically. “I don’t think Palestinians will accept it by themselves, but because of regional change, it might be that leading Arab countries encourage Palestinian leadership to accept that kind of deal. If that happened, Israelis would go for it.”

Netanyahu opened his remarks by stressing to the audience at one of Washington’s most influential liberal think tanks that it was “vital to understand how important it is for me that Israel remain an issue of bipartisan consensus.” He also stated repeatedly that he would be willing to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at any time with no preconditions, even though the two have only spoken for “six hours in the past eight years.” Netanyahu also pointed out that China, India, Japan, and many African and Latin American countries are increasing their political and economic ties with Israel, in search of “three things—Israeli technology, Israeli technology, and Israeli technology.”

Netanyahu’s full remarks, including answering questions from audience and from the think tank’s president, Neera Tanden, can be seen in the video embedded below.

[Photo: seeprogres / YouTube]