He's seen Israel's future and it's... Danny Danon?
The Jewish Journal's Rob Eshman says that he was told that if he wants to see Israel's future, he should speak with Likud MK Danny Danon. Danon, says Eshman, represents what Binyamin Netanyahu really thinks. Danon believes with every fiber of his being that the two-state solution is dead, the one-state solution is a “liberal scare tactic,” and Israel must never give up the territories it captured in the Six-Day War.I agree with him until he gets to the 'long-term vision' part. I don't see that happening and I don't believe we have to decide today what the long-term vision is. What's most important is that the status quo is good for Israel. And the 'demographic threat' is an overblown bogeyman.
This was a founding principle of Likud and its Revisionist ideological forbears: that Israel has a right to the entire biblical land of Israel. It’s a point of view that runs counter to every international peace-making effort in the Middle East since 1967, all dedicated to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It’s also run up against the widely accepted belief that if Israel maintains control of the territories and the millions of Palestinians who live in them, demographic realities will force Israel to become either a nondemocratic, majority Arab nation, or lose its raison d’être as a Jewish state.
...
So, the obvious question I had for Danon was this: “If you don’t want a two-state solution, what’s your solution?”
“There is no short-term solution,” Danon said. “It’s a long-term vision that I have, that there be a regional agreement with Jordan, and with Gaza and Egypt. ... Gaza would be connected to Egypt, and Palestinian territories connected into Jordan, confederated into Jordan. That is the long-term vision, which requires some compromise from Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and international support.”
Other politically active Likudniks in Danon’s generation have offered me the same analysis: Israel is economically and militarily strong, the Palestinians are politically divided. The status quo, which is the bogeyman of centrists, is actually Israel’s friend.Here's the other place where Danon may be wrong. Either Netanyahu is under enormous pressure (which is possible) that we don't see, or he's not sure yet what he believes. Take your pick. Recall that Netanyahu was the one who pushed for people who lean left like Dan Meridor and Uzi Dayan to be put high on the Likud's list. It was only because of Moshe Feiglin and his strong Right wing voters that people like Danon got realistic spots.
I told Danon it seemed Netanyahu believes this as well — otherwise why risk such a confrontation with the United States?
“I agree,” Danon said. “Today I think Netanyahu realizes we have no one who actually represents the Palestinian who’s willing to cut a deal.
“People say, ‘The clock is ticking, you have to do something.’ No, I think the opposite. We should not do anything in a rush.”
If Danon is correct — that Netanyahu believes as he does — it means the prime minister and his government are merely paying lip service to their agreements with the United States over the peace process, and that the building in East Jerusalem that provoked the United States’ ire was a pure expression of Netanyahu’s true desires to expand settlements, though clumsily executed.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:42 PM
8 Comments:
I'm glad you said that, that the status quo is good for Israel. From my distant perspective, it's certainly better than any of the obvious solutions. Change will have to come from the Arabs; change in attitude towards Jews and Israel. Absent that, what is the purpose of discussions? Every political situation is unique. What worked for Britain and Northern Ireland doesn't necessarily work from Israel and the "Palestinians". Frankly, from what I've read, an attitude change is a long way down the road.
Danon is a slick young pol. Based on years of watching slick young pols, as a voter that's not a compliment.
In World Likud meetings, he has been clearly on the side of those opposed to Netanyahu's precarious follies.
So which act is the act?
Wouldn't a more viable solution to the demographic problem be the 'right of return'? At one time, didn't Gaza belong to the Egyptians?
;)
what will happen for example, if israel says: "from now on, we recognize gaza as part of egypt and the west bank as part of jordan,
any attack from those territories will be taken as a responsability of those respectives countries. we will stop any kind of fuel or service providing to those territories as we no longer have any kind of responsability for them".
world: shock.
that's no longer our problem. now it's the egyptian and jordan problem (but as you know, Israel will have to prepare again to defend itself from a 5 countries attack (egypt, jordan, lebanon, syria and iran) not much different from the actual situation.
I agree as well, that the status quo serves Israel. It's not peace but it's not far from it. Also, eventually, I believe there will be a strong backlash from the current world love affair with everything Islam. Reality is bound to catch-up. Plus, once the majority in Jordan realizes they are in fact, the majority, the makeup of the monarchy is bound to change and the Jordanians in Israel may choose to go home.
Carl and Shy Guy, I think Feiglin may have lost the Likud leadership battle but he's helped to remake the core of the Likud Party. More than that, most of the Likud MKs and some from other parties belong to the "Land Of Israel" Lobby in the Knesset. So Netanyahu, even if he wanted to, couldn't go very far without losing his party's support and he's not the kind of guy, whatever you think of him, who could pull off another Sharon. And that is not just my opinion. The Leftist Larry Derfner, who writes for the Jerusalem Post, says Netanyahu is not the one to give up the Land Of Israel and in my own opinion what has helped in that regards is the fact the Palestinians do not want a two state solution.
I regard it as dead and most people in Israel would agree with that assessment. The fact the US is considering imposing it on Israel is I think an indication of just how unlikely the prospects of a Palestinian state that would exist peacefully alongside Israel are. And we all know the bottom line is the Palestinians have not prepared their people to accept Israel's existence; just the exact opposite.
There will be no peace with the other side in our own lifetime.
Husain Barak will have to be removed from the White House in order to have some advancement to world peace.
the jordanian and egyptian occupations of the west bank and gaza were illegal
to say that you want them to take back those territories would accept that those prior occupations were legal.
gaza and the west bank are a part of israel proper
complete the population exchange and send the arabs back to their home countries
(shoulda listened to kahana 40 years ago)
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