Israel Matzav

Set out a vision?

In Friday's JPost, editor David Horovitz urges Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to set out the specifics of his 'two-state vision.'

FOR ALL that Netanyahu is today veritably extolling the virtues of the two-state vision he had so long resisted, for all the pressures he is now beginning to feel from within his own party, for all the precariousness of the current relative stability in the West Bank and the inconvenient truth that a robust terrorist organization rules Gaza, the Obama administration seems bent on what it sees as saving Israel from itself. First-year hope trumping bitter experience, it seems convinced it can create a climate via Israeli concessions in which true Palestinian compromise and wider Arab reconciliation will flourish.

So if, as he now declares, the prime minister has a vision, let him urgently transform its sketched parameters into substance. If, as he now claims, he can drive a better bargain than his predecessors, let him move beyond the rhetoric.

Let him take the challenge that previous governments have ducked for 42 years, and reconcile Israel's conflicting desires for normalization of ties and for retention of territory. Puncture the confusion; prioritize, allocate and relocate. Tell the residents of Ma'aleh Rehavam, and of countless other committed focal points of Jewish life, whether they sustain or undermine the Zionist enterprise. Tell them unequivocally, and tell the world, too. Set out our true needs, clearly and comprehensibly. Then vigorously pursue them.

Netanyahu does not enjoy the luxury of doing a Lieberman, of removing himself from the equation. He must lead.

For if we don't make up our minds, if the prime minister doesn't make up his mind, the signs are multiplying that others are bent on making our minds up for us.

And while we may be untenably confused and conflicted, they may be dangerously ignorant.

As I read Horovitz's prescription, I could not help but think of an article by Daniel Gordis that I blogged earlier this week:

In this new world, the spotlight will almost always be on Israel. Settlement building. Roadblocks. Lieberman. We're going to have to learn to alter that. Make some accommodations, but demand - clearly and unequivocally - that the Palestinians do the same. Netanyahu, or whoever follows him, is going to have to learn to keep the ball, and the world's attention, squarely in and on their court. Like it or not, Israel needs to take the initiative, time and time again - because nothing else will work.

We need to tell the world what our vision of our future is. If our vision means that there is no 'Palestinian state' in the normal understanding of the term 'state' - and if we believe that we are entitled to Judea and Samaria (as I do), then we need to say that. We don't have to be ashamed of making a claim based on our forefathers' having lived in this land for 3,500 years. We don't need to be bound by UN resolutions that follow 242 and 338 because those resolutions were passed by a world that is hostile to our very existence. And it is clear that we have already fulfilled everything that the draftsmen of 242 envisioned us fulfilling by giving away land. We are entitled to Judea and Samaria because there is no way we can be secure without them. We are entitled to Judea and Samaria because we liberated them in a defensive war. We are entitled to Judea and Samaria because they have been Jewish land for 3,500 years.

It is us or them. Let's make sure it's us.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:48 PM