Israel Matzav

The poodle barks

The late Yitzchak Rabin used to refer to Yossi Beilin (pictured) as Peres' poodle when all three of them were members of the Labor party. Beilin decided that Labor wasn't Leftist enough for him, and left to join the Meretz party several years ago. He resigned as Meretz chairman and is no longer a member of the Knesset. His former party has three seats out of 120 in the current Knesset, so it's not exactly a major factor.

But that didn't stop the French from conveying the Legion of Honor on the man who reached an 'agreement' with Abu Mazen that nearly all Israelis vehemently reject, the so-called Geneva Accords. And Beilin used the occasion to blast the Netanyahu government for refusing to freeze Jewish housing in Jerusalem to make Abu Bluff happy.

"Netanyahu is set to announce in the coming days that he will accept a construction freeze in the West Bank settlements for 10 months but will exclude (Arab east) Jerusalem," said Yossi Beilin, who now leads the left-wing Meretz party [No, he doesn't. Chaim Oron does. CiJ].

"The Palestinians will reject the offer and this move will in effect mark a backwards step that will lead to a political vacuum and the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority," he said.

Soccer Dad points out that there is no one to blame for that situation except the 'Palestinians.' In the process, he points out this curious factoid from 'Palestinian' chief spokesman bottle washer Saeb Erekat.

Erekat acknowledged that Israel had presented the Palestinians with a proposal in November 2008 which "talked about Jerusalem and almost 100% of the West Bank," and he noted that Mahmoud Abbas could have accepted this proposal, just as the "Palestinian negotiators could have given in in 1994, 1998, or 2000." Intriguingly, Erekat then proceeded to reveal what he considered a "secret": he explained why the Palestinians had rejected the recent proposals just like the ones offered in 2000/01 during the negotiations in Camp David and Taba. What prevented an agreement every time - at least according to Erekat - was the Israeli request that the Palestinians acknowledge the central importance of the Temple Mount for Jewish history and religion.

Maybe Yossi Beilin is willing to agree to the lie that there is no Jewish connection to the Temple Mount. But 99.9% of Jewish Israelis would not. And by the way, neither would most Christians in the World either.

Read the whole thing. If the French think that by honoring Beilin they are honoring Israel, someone ought to tell them that we are completely unimpressed.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:30 AM