Danny Ayalon, Israel Deputy Foreign Minister, Statement on Itamar Massacre

From an interview with Seth Mandel, at Big Peace:

Ayalon said the brutal stabbing of a Jewish family in Itamar in their sleep cannot be looked at in a vacuum, but is more evidence that without true recognition, the delegitimization of Israel and the ubiquitous incitement in Palestinian media reinforces an environment of violence that will only continue if this atmosphere of hatred isn’t reformed:

“So of course when we talk about the fact that we would like the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state or the homeland of the Jews, it’s something which is more than symbolic. It’s not just something that is verbally pronounced. It’s something which is very deep. Because if we sign a peace treaty between the Israeli people and the Palestinians, it also must reflect the end of the conflict, and the end of the claims. And so long as they claim the entire land, and we see it through a systematic incitement through a systematic culture which talks about the Israelis, the Jews as colonialists that do not deserve a state, that came here from… Europe, deny 3,500 years of Jewish history and presence here. And of course glorification of terrorists. But so long as they do not accept in the fullest meaning that we are here by our own right–they are not doing any favor to us by recognizing this–then we have a problem.”

More at the link above.