I was listening to an interview with Netanjahu on NPR this morning. I thought this was a revealing exchange:

Inskeep: I want to ask another question, Prime Minister Netanyahu. While we were reporting in Israel, we heard people in Israel on the left and on the right openly worry about Israel's increasing international isolation, particularly because the conflict with Palestinians has gone on and on and there has not been the establishment of a Palestinian state. How concerned are you about Israel's international isolation?

Netanjahu: Well, look. I think that there is a misperception. Israel has done enormous amount of, for peace. I myself have done things that no prime minister previously had done. I had frozen the settlements. Nobody did that. And I think, you know, the ones that have to be convinced are not only the international communities, the people of Israel will have to be convinced that the Palestinians are ready for peace. The leaders of Iran, just in the last few days have said that they would arm the West Bank and turn it into another Gaza. What the people of Israel are saying, "Hey, make sure that doesn't happen again." And if that is misperceived in some parts of the international community that's unfortunate, but I think that that's the truth.

Inskeep: I have to just check a fact here, Prime Minister. You said that you froze settlements. It is correct that during your time as prime minister there was a period of months where there was a moratorium on settlements.

Netanjahu: That's right.

Inskeep: But when I was traveling around the West Bank we saw construction everywhere, construction cranes everywhere. There's plenty of building going on today.

Netanjahu: Well, first of all, remember that 90 percent, 85 to 90 percent of Israeli citizens in Judea-Samaria, in the West Bank, live in clusters, in urban blocks. Everybody understands that if we were to have a solution then those blocks would stay in Israel. And that's where you saw these cranes; that's where Israelis live. In the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem, everybody understands, they will stay.

Inskeep: I saw cranes outside of Jerusalem. I'm thinking of Ariel, for example.

Netanjahu: Those are, well, the blocks are outside of Jerusalem, that's exactly true. And what I'm saying is that the map is not affected by that. The critical problem we have is not merely where the borders will be but what will be on the other side of the border. Do we walk out and the Islamists walk in, backed by Iran, as happened in Gaza, as happened in Lebanon, as is happening in other parts of the Middle East. They're either backed by Iran or they're backed by al-Qaida or, if you will, by ISIS.

Inskeep: You did warn during the campaign, Prime Minister Netanyahu, that if you lost, your opponents would evacuate the settlements. You've been quoted in the past, in going to settlements, and saying that you would not be removing settlements. Are you saying now that you would remove settlements, some of them anyway, as part of a peace deal?

Netanjahu: I'm saying I don't think that's the obstacle for a peace deal. I don't think it ever was. In effect, if you followed this election, which you may have if you were here.

Inskeep: Sure.

Netanjahu: Inskeep: You'd notice that this issue that you're now asking me was barely engaged across the political spectrum. Why? Because nobody in Israel really believes that you should take positions different from what I've just said. Well, some do, but they're very small.

It's interesting that when Inskeep points out that many of the current settlement expansions are not occurring in Jerusalem or in the blocks that Netanjahu refers to, Netanjahu begins his next response with a falsehood, and ends it with mention of ISIS. He then downplays the significance of the border issue by saying that since it was barely engaged across the political spectrum, it is a minor issue. Of course, whether or not candidates can benefit from discussing it in Israeli elections, it is a major issue for the Palestinians and for the international community.

It's clear that Netanjahu has no interest in a two-state solution of any sort.