Israel Matzav

Lake: Netanyahu to agree to 'Palestinian' reichlet

The Washington Times' Eli Lake reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu will agree to the establishment of a 'Palestinian' state reichlet in his Sunday night speech at the Begin-Sadat Center, but with a list of conditions that the 'Palestinians' are unlikely to accept.

The conditions he is expected to put forward include:

• Any Palestinian state must be demilitarized, without an air force, full-fledged army or heavy weapons.

• Palestinians may not sign treaties with powers hostile to Israel.

• A Palestinian state must allow Israeli civilian and military aircraft unfettered access to Palestinian airspace, allow Israel to retain control of the airwaves and to station Israeli troops on a future state's eastern and southern borders.

• Palestinians must accept Israel as a Jewish state, a nod to the hawkish side of Mr. Netanyahu's governing coalition that has raised concerns that the Palestinian Authority, which nominally governs the West Bank, does not recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

The State Department declined to comment on the details of what Mr. Netanyahu is expected to say.

The State Department may have declined comment, but a lot of other people had lots of comments. Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:59 PM