 BY FAREED MAHDY
(IDN Middle East Desk) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has challenged U.S. President Barack Obama's firm position towards the solution of the Middle East conflict, which foresees the creation of a Palestinian State living "in peace and security". What is more, he has made everybody unhappy, including some of his right/far-right coalition.
Netanyahu spelled out his vision in a speech at the Bar Ilan University, near Tel Aviv on June 14, 10 days after U.S. president's major policy address at the Cairo University.
Netanyahu started by repeating his rhetoric against Iran, which has been considered comparable to the equally sensationalist rhetoric of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadynejad against Israel.
The Israeli prime minister warned again the entire world against the great danger that Iran represents to Israel, the Middle East and to all humankind.
He said: "The Iranian threat looms large before us, as was further demonstrated yesterday. The greatest danger confronting Israel, the Middle East, the entire world and human race, is the nexus between radical Islam and nuclear weapons."
Then, and unlike president Obama’s definition of a Palestinian State, Netanyahu announced his own firm position, based on three major conditions:
ISRAEL FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE ONLY
The Israeli prime minister announced that "a fundamental prerequisite for ending the conflict is a public, binding and unequivocal Palestinian recognition of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people".
Though repeatedly spelled out by Netanhayu and the leaders of his coalition, the official announcement of this condition surprised many Middle East analysts some of them recalled the atrocious suffering of the Jewish people during the World War II under the Third Reich in Germany and its outrageous vision of 'ethnic purity' which led to an abominable massive 'ethnic cleansing' of which the Jews were the victims.
But even when he was clear enough about this point, Netanyahu wanted to further stress it, affirming that "to vest this declaration with practical meaning, there must also be a clear understanding that the Palestinian refugee problem will be resolved outside Israel's borders".
Further: "For it is clear that any demand for resettling Palestinian refugees within Israel undermines Israel's continued existence as the state of the Jewish people."
Both the "fundamental prerequisite" of "a public, binding and unequivocal Palestinian recognition of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people" and the "clear understanding that the Palestinian refugee problem will be resolved outside Israel's borders" imply two major consequences:
- The Palestinian "refugees", that is, Palestinians expelled from the State of Israel since its establishment in 1949 during the successive wars, and since then living in an errant 'Diaspora' in refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, other Arab countries and even other continents, should be forced to renounce for ever their legitimate right to live in their original homes and lands. Their number is estimated at around six million that is slightly less than the entire population of Israel, Arabs included.
- The Palestinians living under Israeli occupation should either (a) formally swear 'loyalty' to Israel as Jewish State, serve in its army and consequently be ready to fight against other Palestinians and Arabs, (b) be absorbed by other Arab countries, or (c) move to "territories under Palestinian control", as suggested by Netanyahu.
SECURITY FOR ISRAEL ONLY
Here, the Israeli prime minister repeated his first condition: "I have already stressed the first principle: recognition. Palestinians must clearly and unambiguously recognise Israel as the state of the Jewish people."
He added: "The second principle is: demilitarisation. The territory under Palestinian control must be demilitarised with ironclad security provisions for Israel."
"Without these two conditions, there is a real danger that an armed Palestinian state would emerge that would become another terrorist base against the Jewish state, such as the one in Gaza," Netanyahu declared.
"In order to achieve peace, we must ensure that Palestinians will not be able to import missiles into their territory, to field an army, to close their airspace to us, or to make pacts with the likes of Hezbollah and Iran. On this point as well, there is wide consensus within Israel," the Israeli prime minister claimed.
Netanyahu then affirmed again: "It is impossible to expect us to agree in advance to the principle of a Palestinian state without assurances that this state will be demilitarised. On a matter so critical to the existence of Israel, we must first have our security needs addressed."
"Therefore, today we ask our friends in the international community, led by the United States, for what is critical to the security of Israel: clear commitments that in a future peace agreement, the territory controlled by the Palestinians will be demilitarised: namely, without an army, without control of its airspace, and with effective security measures to prevent weapons smuggling into the territory - real monitoring, and not what occurs in Gaza today."
As if his words were not clear enough, Netanyahu underlined: "And obviously, the Palestinians will not be able to forge military pacts. Without this, sooner or later, these territories will become another 'Hamastan'. And that we cannot accept." He was referring to Hamas, the main Islamist movement in the Palestinian territories, born soon after the previous intifada erupted in 1987.
Then Netanyahu announced: "I told President Obama when I was in Washington that if we could agree on the substance, then the terminology would not pose a problem."
"And here is the substance that I now state clearly: If we receive this guarantee regarding demilitarisation and Israel's security needs, and if the Palestinians recognise Israel as the state of the Jewish people, then we will be ready in a future peace agreement to reach a solution where a demilitarised Palestinian state exists alongside the Jewish state," he repeated.
He added: "Regarding the remaining important issues that will be discussed as part of the final settlement, my positions are known: Israel needs defensible borders, and Jerusalem must remain the united capital of Israel with continued religious freedom for all faiths."
Netanyahu's final condition in this section of his speech was that "the territorial question will be discussed as part of the final peace agreement".
JERUSALEM, FOR ISRAEL ONLY
"Regarding the remaining important issues that will be discussed as part of the final settlement," Netanyahu said, "my positions are known: Israel needs defensible borders, and Jerusalem must remain the united capital of Israel…"
SETTLEMENTS? IT DEPENDS…
Reacting to the outspoken U.S. pressure on Israel to immediately stop the Israeli settlements, Netanyahu said: "We have no intention of building new settlements or of expropriating additional land for existing settlements. But there is a need to enable the residents to live normal lives, to allow mothers and fathers to raise their children like families elsewhere."
"The settlers are neither the enemies of the people nor the enemies of peace. Rather, they are an integral part of our people, a principled, pioneering and Zionist public," the Israeli prime minister underlined.
A CONCLUSION
Netanyahu's "vision" consists of a set of conditions that openly and clearly contradict, let alone violate, all the previous international agreements and terms of negotiations, such as the United Nations Security Council Resolution number 242, of the year 1967, which unambiguously demands the withdrawal of Israel from the territories it occupied during the June war of that very year.
It also goes straight in the opposite direction of the known Arab Initiative, which was adopted during the Arab leaders' summit in Beirut in 2002.
Based on the international agreements and resolutions, the Arab Initiative offers full normalisation of relations with Israel, and therefore its formal recognition by all Arab countries.
In exchange, the Initiative requires the Israeli fulfilment of the Security Council resolutions regarding its withdrawal from occupied territories, as well as the creation of a Palestinian sovereign state, with Jerusalem as its capital, and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.
OBAMA'S VISION
Netanyahu's vision also contradicts the declared position of U.S. president Obama, who assured in Cairo that "the only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two States, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security".
The U.S. president promised that "America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity and a State of their own".
Obviously the terms "dignity, opportunity and a State of their own" have a different meaning in Netanyahu's mind and vocabulary.
THE REACTIONS
The Palestinians:
Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, dismissed the speech, saying: "Netanyahu's remarks have sabotaged all initiatives, paralysed all efforts being made and challenges the Palestinian, Arab and American positions."
Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians' senior negotiator, said that "the peace process has been moving at the speed of a tortoise. Tonight, Netanyahu has flipped it over on its back."
Erekat called on all Palestinians to show unity, and the Arabs to defend the Arab Initiative as the sole way out to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also called on Obama to intervene to force Israel to abide by previous interim agreements that include freezing settlement activity in the West Bank.
Yasser Abd Rabbouh, advisor to president Mahmoud Abbas and secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), called on the international community to confront this policy through which Netanyahu "wants to torpedoe all peace chances".
Palestinian prime minister under Abbas presidency, Salam Fayyad, said the speech "strongly hits all efforts aimed at rescuing the peace process, and destroys the possibility of resuming negoatiations".
HAMAS described Netanhayu's speech "racist" adding that it offers a state "without identity and sovereignty".
The Arabs
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak criticised Israel's insistence that it should be recognised as a Jewish State. In a meeting with the Special Forces of the Egyptian army, Mubarak said that "it aborts peace chances, and Egypt and others will not get along with it".
Syria calified the speech as "racist and provacative".
Lebanese president Michel Suleiman called Netanyahu's position "intransigent".
The League of Arabs States considered it as an attempt to enbarasse Arab countries through "unacceptable conditions" and that Netanyahu presented this as his project "in order to be rejected by the Arabs the Palestinians, and the international community".
The Gulf Cooperation Council's secretary general, Abdel Rahman Al Atiya, said that Netanyahu's position "cotradicts the fundaments and principles on which a just and lasting peace are based".
The West
The White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that Obama welcomes what he called an important step forward, but stressed "the (U.S) president is committed to two states, a Jewish state of Israel and an independent Palestine, in the historic homeland of both peoples".
Obama's spokesman also stressed that "he (Obama) believes this solution can and must ensure both Israel's security and the fulfilment of the Palestinians' legitimate aspirations for a viable state, and he welcomes Prime Minister Netanyahu's endorsement of that goal".
Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said in Jerusalem that Israeli prime minister had presented in his speech many obstacles to peace that no previous Israeli premier did before.
Carter also said that Netanyahu wants, actually, to extend the Israeli settlements and that he asks the Palestinians to recognise Israel as a Jewish State, while 25 percent of its population is non-Jewish.
Most European leaders welcomed Netanyahu's speech, but with strong 'buts'. In tune with most of the foreign ministers and high-ranking officials of the 27 European Union member states, French foreign minister Bernard Koushner said its was "not enough" what the Israeli prime minister was offering.
Russia expressed reservations, affirming that Netanhayu's speech does not pave the way to solving the Israeli-Palestinian problem and that it imposes pre-conditions that are unacceptable to the Palestnians. – 17.06.2009
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