Netanyahu fires back at Obama over ‘stolen land’ accusation: ‘We’re Jews in Judea’

The prime minister rejected Obama’s portrayal of Israel as a colonial power, accusing the former president of ignoring Jewish history and the real obstacle to Middle East peace.

By World Israel News Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired back at former President Barack Obama on Friday after Obama accused Israel of taking Palestinian land, declaring: “Our land is not stolen land. This is our homeland.”

“We’re not the Dutch in Indonesia. We’re not the Belgians in the Congo. We’re Jews in Judea,” Netanyahu said in a blistering video response.

The clash erupted after Obama told an audience in Northern Ireland that Israelis “took land off people and they were excessive,” arguing that Palestinians were justified in demanding their land back.

Obama made the remarks Tuesday while receiving an honorary doctorate at Queen’s University Belfast. Netanyahu called his comments “regrettable” and rejected the suggestion that the Jewish state was a colonial enterprise.

Obama warns Israel has lost moral ground

During his Belfast appearance, Obama argued that Israel’s military and technological superiority could not provide a lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He warned against an approach in which Israel relies on its strength to take whatever measures it considers necessary for its security without making concessions to Palestinians.

Such a strategy might succeed in the short term, Obama said, but would come at a moral cost.

“You have ceded moral ground if that is the position you take,” he warned.

Obama accused Netanyahu’s government of embracing that approach and argued that Israel must recognize that millions of Palestinians will remain in the region.

He specifically cited the presence of seven million Palestinians, saying they were “not going anywhere.”

Netanyahu: Israel is not the obstacle to peace

Netanyahu rejected the suggestion that Israeli policies were the central barrier to resolving the conflict.

Instead, he pointed to the refusal of Israel’s enemies to recognize Jewish sovereignty, regardless of where the country’s borders might be drawn.

“The obstacle to peace is not Israel,” Netanyahu said, arguing that the fundamental problem is the rejection of the Jewish people’s right to a state of their own.

He also linked Israel’s struggle for security to the broader confrontation between the United States and hostile regimes in the Middle East.

Pointing to chants of “Death to Israel” and “Death to America,” Netanyahu said the hostility directed at the Jewish state is part of a wider campaign against the West.

“We are the ‘Little Satan,’ you are the ‘Great Satan,'” he said, referring to the labels used by Iran’s leadership for Israel and the United States.

Both countries, he argued, are defending a shared civilization against common enemies.

‘We will not gamble with our survival’

The prime minister concluded with a warning against diplomatic arrangements that fail to account for the threats Israel faces.

“A peace built on illusions will crash against the rocks of Middle Eastern reality,” Netanyahu said.

He insisted that Israel would not compromise its security simply to satisfy international demands or reach an agreement with adversaries unwilling to recognize its legitimacy.

“Israel will not gamble with its survival to accommodate those who refuse to accept the facts of history, to accept our right to exist, or who wish to appease terror.”

The exchange marks another public disagreement between Netanyahu and Obama, whose relationship was frequently strained during Obama’s presidency, particularly over Israeli settlements, Palestinian statehood and the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement.