Netanyahu Endorses Palestinian State - Sort of.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Netanyahu Endorses Palestinian State - Sort of.

Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu just finished his long awaited speech.

His goal, in a way, was to dance along enough cracks to do his best to avoid deepening the rift with the Obama administration while not alienating his government..and to state some basic truths while appearing reasonable. I think he largely succeeded.

Yes, he did endorse a second Arab Palestinian state, but with common sense conditions that the Arabs will absolutely never agree to...thus putting the ball back in their court. And in Obama's.

Netanyahu said he supported President Obama's call for regional peace, saying:

"We are all partners to Begin's and Sadat's vision of peace." But he made it quite clear that the major component to that peace is dealing with Iran, which he referred to as "..the convergence of Islamic extremism and nuclear weapons."

While he said he recognized that it was not a substitute for political peace, he called on the Arab leaders to help bring economic peace to the Palestinians as an important component, and for the Sunni oil billionairesto invest and help the Palestinian economy. Knowing what absolute thieves Fatah are and that Netanyahu is absolutely correct that improving the economic lot of the Palestinians is a key element is a final peace with Israel, their fellow Arabs will probably not want to be bothered.

Bibi was also very straightforward in correctly naming the main reason the conflict has gone on for as long as it has - the Arab refusal to accept Israel as a Jewish homeland.He pointed out that Arab attacks on Jews started long before Israel was even a state and that had the Palestinians actually wanted a state of their own alongside Israel, they could have had one a long time ago.

He reiterated the historic claim of Jews to Israel and called for the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state:

"The Palestinian leadership must rise up and say in a very straight way that we are tired of this conflict, we will recognize the right of the Jewish people to have a national homeland in this part of the world." 

And he set out his conditions for Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state, first citing a brief history of how Israel has been rewarded for its past concessions since Oslo in places like Gaza:

"As we move closer to an agreement, they move further away and make new demands. The fact is that every time we retreat, we get terror in return. In 2000 and again last year, Israeli governments proposed retreating almost completely in return for peace and were given a negative answer. In 2005, we withdrew from Gaza and were answered with rocket fire on our children. The idea that a retreat will bring peace has been disproven."

What Netanyahu is willing to support is a completely demilitarized Palestinian state:

"The first principle is that the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state and the second principle is demilitarization because otherwise we can have rockets like in Gaza. We don't want rockets onPetach Tikva and Ben Gurion Airport. We want peace. So we have to ensure that the Palestinians cannot obtain weapons, raise an army or make treaties with Iran and Hezbullah. Therefore, we ask our friends in the international community, especially the United States for an explicit promise that as part of the permanent arrangement of peace there be absolute demilitarization of the Palestinians. {..}

"I say this in a clear voice -- if we receive a guarantee of this demilitarized unit, we will be prepared to reach agreement to a demilitarized Palestine side by side with the Jewish state," Netanyahusaid.

This has precedents by the way, in places like Andorra and San Marino in Europe.

He also said that Jerusalem will remain Israel's undivided capitol, that he's not going to prohibit Jews in the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria recognized as part of Israel by the Bush Administration from building homes - aka natural growth - and that the so-called Palestinian 'right-of-return' to Israel is not going to happen. He cleverly mentioned the forgotten refugees of the 1948 conflict, the almost 1 million Jews who were ethnically cleansed from the Arab world and were resettled in Israel:

"For this recognition to have practical application, the 'Palestinian refugee problem' must be solved outside Israel's borders. Resettling them in Israel contradicts the idea of a Jewish state. The problem can be solved and we have already proven it by resettling refugees from Arab countries who came with nothing. All Israelis agree on this. I believe that with goodwill it is possible to solve this humanitarian problem once and for all."

The end result? The Arabs are likely not to budge one iota from the Saudipeace ultimatum, and especially not the Palestinians. The last thing Fatah and Hamas want is an actual end to the conflict, and they will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

And the Arab failure to compromise in the slightest degree is proof, if anyone needs it that the problem is not the lack of a Palestinian state, but a refusal to accept Jews living in the Arab world in conditions of peace and equality.

Nevertheless, expect continued pressure on Israel to give in to each and every one of the Arab's demands, even if it ultimately means national suicide.

The other thing is that while Netanyahu's call to the international community and the United States for guarantees is to be expected, the Israelis are fools if they rely on 'international guarantees' for their security. That particularly applies to the Obama Administration, who've already proven they can't be trusted to keep their word where Israel is concerned.

All in all, a pretty good effort by Netanyahu. we'll see what develops.