The Herald · Miami, Florida · 28 April 1998
CP-1998-002
Netanyahu tells Palestine: Don’t declare state
The Associated Press, Jerusalem
Shown from the top. The whole column — 4.4 times taller than it is wide — is in the enlargement.
Transcribed from the clipping
“JERUSALEM — Saying Israel could not accept a ‘new Iraq or Iran’ on its doorstep, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Monday that Israel would retaliate if Palestinians declare a state before reaching a peace agreement. The Israeli leader, in one of his toughest statements yet on Palestinian statehood, refused to say what steps might be taken.
The most likely option would be the annexation of disputed West Bank land by Israel. ‘We cannot accept and mustn’t accept the formation of a new Iraq or Iran next to our doorstep,’ Netanyahu told the Foreign Press Association. ‘If the Palestinians react with unilateral actions, so will we.’
The statement came in reaction to a warning from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who told reporters in the autonomous Gaza Strip over the weekend that he would press ahead with a declaration of statehood if there was no peace settlement by May 4, 1999, the deadline set in the Oslo accords. ‘It’s our right, and we’re going to declare it,’ Arafat said.
He has made similar assertions before… ‘We hope there will be progress, but I cannot guarantee that,’ said Netanyahu, adding that Israel was trying to be ‘flexible’ but it would take an equal effort from the Palestinians. Palestinians have accused Netanyahu of foot-dragging and warned that a failure in London could lead to an explosion of violence.”
Context added by this archive
Annexation, named as the threatened answer to a declaration of statehood, in 1998 — in the reporter’s own sentence, not in a quotation. The word Jerusalem is set as a drop-in label beside the second paragraph.
Cite this clipping
"Netanyahu tells Palestine: Don’t declare state," The Herald, 28 April 1998, p. 1. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1998-002. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1998-002
This clipping is read closely in the section below
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Last updated 2 November 2026
This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1724 to 2023. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.
The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the news agency that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary. A city here is where the newspaper was published, not where the story came from, and on most records it was taken from the masthead.
Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-1998-002.
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