Netanyahu Speech Accepts Palestinian State with Conditions
Netanyahu laid out three conditions in his speech. First, the Palestinian State would have to be demilitarized. That is to say, Palestine would not have an army with which to threaten its neighbors. Second, the Palestinians and presumably the other Arab countries would not only have to recognize Israel as a country but Israel as a Jewish state. Finally, Palestinian refugees would have to be resettled outside Israel.
The Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has already angrily rejected the conditions laid out in the Netanyahu speech. Even a reasonable Palestinian government might have problems with having a State of Palestine founded without an army. The Palestinians have hardly been noted for their reasonableness.
Mahmoud Abbas also rejected the other two conditions laid out in Netanyahu's speech. Allow Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Israel War of Independence and their descendents to return to their homes within Israel has been an unalterable demand of the Palestinians since the Palestinian nationalist movement began. The problem is that no Israeli government could accept such a demand, since the influx of two or three million Palestinians would all but destroy Israel's status as a Jewish state and homeland and therefore the very reason for their being an Israel.
Netanyahu's speech places President Barack Obama in a somewhat awkward position. Benjamin Netanyahu has given way on Obama's demand that he recognize the idea of a Palestinian State. But Obama will find that the conditions laid out in Netanyahu's speech to be a conundrum. On the one hand, siding with Israel on those conditions will anger the Palestinians. On the other hand, siding with the Palestinians will anger Israel and her supporters within the United States. Siding with the Palestinians would leave President Obama open to the charge that he would see Israel destroyed as a Jewish state and homeland just to get a peace agreement that might not hold up anyway, considering the history of such agreements in the Middle East.
That problem leaves out the vexing questions of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the status of Jerusalem, and the fact that the Gaza Strip is ruled by Hamas, which rejects any talks with Israel under any condition.
Netanyahu's trump card, of course, is Iran. Iran has apparently, through what many see as a fraudulent election, reinstalled a government that vows to annihilate the State of Israel with nuclear weapons which it is developing. Iran also supports Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists who launch missiles and suicide bomber strikes against Israel.
Netanyahu can claim with some credibility that a peace agreement with the Palestinians is impossible so long as the Iranian threat persists. The Obama administration has so far been very passive in dealing with Iran, preferring diplomat entreaties over stronger inducements. In the meantime, Israel is drawing up plans to strike Iran on its own, to destroy or at least delay the development of an Iran nuclear arsenal.
Sources: Netenyahu Speech, Huffington Post, June 14th, 2009
Palestinians: Netanyahu is 'sabatoging' peace efforts, Haaretz, June 14th, 2009
Published by Mark Whittington
Mark R. Whittington is a writer residing in Houston, Texas. He is the author of The Last Moonwalker, Children of Apollo, Dark Sanction, and Nocturne. He has written numerous articles, some for the Washington... View profile
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2 Comments
Post a CommentRola, if Netayahu were worse than Hitler (and by suggesting that you have ceded the argument by violating Godwin's Law) there would be no Israeli-Palestinian conflict because there would be no Palestinians.
Nantayahu has agreed to nothing more than a name change for Israel's brutal occupation of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. The occupation will deceptively be passed off as an independent state for the Palestinians.
Netanyahu's so-called concession to the Obama admin. is laughable and an insult to the Palestinian people. It is up to the Obama admin. to use its leverage to force Netanyahu to negotiate a just peace agreement with the Palestinians. The Obama admin. can do this by tying US aid to Israel's progress on peace agreement with the Palestinians. Otherwise, the Palestinians and arab countries should not support the so-called peace process, which will only be a plot to gain legitimacy for Israel and its brutal occupation of the Palestinians.