Israel Matzav

Netanyahu government 'reconsidering' the road map?

There should be some fireworks later this morning once opposition leader Tzipora Livni wakes up and sees this story. The reason there was no reaction from the Prime Minister's office to Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's dissing of the 'Annapolis process' last week is that Netanyahu is engaged in a full review of all of Israel's diplomatic components with the 'Palestinians' - including the 'road map.'

The prime minister has no intention of addressing in detail issues such as whether his government is bound by the road map or the Annapolis process until the policy review is completed, the Post has learned.

Netanyahu's speech to the Knesset last week, in which he said his government was committed to peace and a three-pronged policy toward the Palestinians that would allow them to rule themselves without endangering Israel, was probably about as specific as he will get in public for the time being.

"Over the next few weeks, the government will undergo a policy review on a range of issues, and it is premature to speak of specific government positions," one senior government official said Sunday.

Referring to Lieberman's remarks, the official said that until the government adopted a policy, the comments of various ministers reflected their own positions, but not government's.

...

An official in [the Foreign Ministry] said it was necessary to reevaluate the road map, which Lieberman said last week obligated Israel to the letter, because the status of that document had changed. For example, according to the road map, there was supposed to be a final-status agreement by 2005, the official said.

In the interim, the Annapolis process had short-circuited the road map, moving the third phase - the one calling for final-status negotiations - up to the beginning, the official said. As a result, the document had to be looked at anew before any sweeping policy statements could be made on it.

The Post raises the possibility that Netanyahu will postpone an early-May trip to the US to meet with President Obama and to attend the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC - yes, that conference), because he will not want to meet with Obama until the review is complete and government policy has been clarified.

The Post reports that there are several possible drafts of the guidelines being presented to the cabinet. One such draft presented yesterday includes these points.

Israel is obligated by international agreements.

The government will work to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, views this as one of its central objectives, and does not want to rule over the Palestinians.

The efforts to bring about peace must not start with Israeli concessions, which have not proven themselves in the past, but rather from building strong Palestinian governmental institutions, a strong Palestinian economy, and the Palestinian abandonment of terrorism.

The failure to reach an agreement in the past was because the Palestinians would not accept one, and because they have never recognized Israel as a Jewish state.

The government is just now formulating its polices, and the international community should withhold its criticism and judge the government by its actions.

Meanwhile, the 'Palestinians' apparently aren't very interested in talking to Netanyahu's government anyway.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that the new Israeli government would have to accept the creation of a Palestinian state, stop construction in West Bank settlements and remove roadblocks, "so that we can resume dialogue in order to reach a political solution."

Good luck with that.

Read the whole thing.

The UN Security Council was unable to agree on a resolution condemning North Korea's missile launch on Sunday, but I will bet they can agree really quickly on a resolution condemning Israel's refusal to concede everything that can be conceded in 'negotiations' with the 'Palestinians' before the 'negotiations' start. No matter. This is precisely why the Right won the election. Much as I am opposed to the establishment of a 'Palestinian' state reichlet, for much of 'Middle Israel' such a blunt statement would be too much to handle. But Israelis voted for Netanyahu and parties to his right precisely because we were fed up with our governments giving everything and getting nothing in return. For the time being, at least, that does not seem to be a problem with this government. Whether it will continue this way and what the Hussein Obama administration in Washington might try to do to stop it is anyone's guess.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:46 AM