Netanyahu praises Arab 'peace initiative'
This one nearly slipped below the radar.With a parade of American officials due in Israel this week, on Thursday, Prime Minister Netanyahu praised the 'Saudi plan' (also known as the 'Arab peace initiative'). Sort of....
Speaking at a reception at the house of the Egyptian ambassador in Herzliya to mark Egypt's national day, Netanyahu said that Israel "valued efforts of Arab states to advance peace initiatives, and if these offers are not final offers, then I believe this spirit can create an atmosphere in which a comprehensive peace is possible."The problem with the 'Saudi plan' is that we have been told time and time again that it is not negotiable.
Netanyahu said the spirit of reconciliation in this initiative was an important change from the spirit of Khartoum, the conference of 13 Arab leaders immediately after the Six Day War, at which the Arab world said no to peace, recognition or negotiations with Israel.
"We hope in the months ahead to forge peace with the Palestinians and to expand that into a vision of a broader regional peace," Netanyahu said.
The 'Saudi plan' would require Israel to return to the indefensible 1949 armistice lines and to admit hundreds of thousands of 'Palestinian refugees' into whatever is left. For those reasons, it is a non-starter to nearly all Jewish Israelis.
Netanyahu seems to understand that and may have just been trying to be diplomatic. Still, there's something unseemly about Israel's Prime Minister praising a plan that has been anathema to most Israelis pretty much from the minute it was first proposed.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:20 PM
2 Comments:
Bibi told them, what they, Arabs, wanted to hear, how irrelevant ever...
good job, Mr. PM
Playing off the Arabs against the Palestinians. Flattery does one good even if its a dead end.
Heh
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