Britannia Radio

Weekly Commentary: PM Netanyahu continues the fan dance?

Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 26 April, 2012

From the latest “fan dance”:

NETANYAHU: Well demilitarized is a real state. It just means that they can't 
field the armies. They can't fire rockets. We want to make sure that if we 
have a peace arrangement, we walk away from certain areas that they won't be 
used a third time by Iran and its Palestinian proxies to fire rockets on Tel 
Aviv and Jerusalem, but we don't want to run their lives. I don't want to 
govern the Palestinians. I don't want them as subjects of Israel or as 
citizens of Israel. I want them to have their own independent state but a 
demilitarized state.
BURNETT: And to be clear, one that isn't separated by Israel as in there's a 
Palestine part here, Israel -- 
NETANYAHU: No -- 
BURNETT: All one -- 
NETANYAHU: That is Swiss cheese (ph) now -- 
CNN Interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Aired April 24, 2012 - 19:00 ET

Until this interview we still had the then PM Sharon concept that 
“contiguity” could be achieved in a “have your cake and eat it too” 
arrangement via a series of unobstructed bridges and tunnels that would 
enable Palestinians to move between various locations without the presence 
of Israeli communities in the same general area interfering with that 
movement.

Mr. Netanyahu’s reference to “Swiss cheese” indicates that instead of 
linking Palestinian areas via bridges and tunnels that Israeli communities 
situated in locations impacting Palestinian contiguity would be uprooted.

Let's not be children here. Netanyahu is engaged in an incredibly 
complicated high stakes "fan dance". It is a "fan dance" that has been going 
on for decades.
There is the problem though, that the "audience" takes note of each 
centimeter exposed during the "dance" and develops a composite picture of 
all the exposed elements.
Here is where things get complicated:

Consider what Mr. Netanyahu says: I want them to have their own independent 
state but a demilitarized state.

And that’s not just demilitarized on paper.

“We want to make sure that if we have a peace arrangement, we walk away from 
certain areas that they won't be used a third time by Iran and its 
Palestinian proxies to fire rockets on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem…”

Here’s the trick:

In truth there is absolutely no way in the world “to make sure that if we 
have a peace arrangement, we walk away from certain areas that they won't be 
used a third time by Iran and its Palestinian proxies to fire rockets on Tel 
Aviv and Jerusalem…”

Yes. There are all kinds of NGOs, academics, ex-brass and politicians 
walking around with various pieces of paper who are absolutely confident 
that their piece of paper, if signed, could deliver on this requirement.

But these very same people were wrong about Oslo, the retreat from Gaza and 
the future of Egypt.

Simple fact: once there is a sovereign Palestinian state on the ground it 
remains a sovereign Palestinian state even if it trashes the piece of paper 
it signed in order to become a state.

And given what we have witnessed in this neighborhood, there is every reason 
in the world to expect that ultimately if we walk away from certain areas 
that they will be used a third time by Iran and its Palestinian proxies to 
fire rockets on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Binyamin Netanyahu is no fool.

He also knows this.

It remains unclear when, if ever, the Palestinians will be smart enough to 
drop their preconditions for negotiations to force an end to the fan dance.


Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il