"Wiped off the map" might not be a sensible way for a head of state to talk. But it needn't mean what it's been taken to mean.

Within the last few years a fair number of countries have been "wiped off the map". East Germany and West Germany, the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia - and the list could be extended. Some day, when Ireland gets re-united and if Scotland gets its independence, the "United Kingdom" will have been wiped off the map.

What matters isn't so much countries, it's people. In principle there are two equatable futures for Israel/Palestine. One is for there to be two countries side by side, Israel and Palestine, one predominently Jewish, the other predominently Muslim and Christian. The other would be a reunited country within the historic boders of Palestine, shared by both peoples. The former appears more likely to be achievable, but there have always been those in both communities who would ideally choose the latter.