Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recently told members of the Israeli parliament that while Israel needs the Palestinian Authority, it should “crush” Palestinian aspirations for statehood, according to Israeli media reports.

The reports said that Netanyahu was speaking to the Knesset members at a closed meeting of the parliamentary foreign and defense affairs committee last week. He reportedly made the comments during a discussion on the future of the PA, saying that while Israel has an interest in seeing the PA continuing to function, Palestinian hopes of establishing a sovereign state “must be eliminated.”