Playing for time
Herb Keinon discusses the role of time in 'peace' proposals that might be made by Prime Minister Netanyahu. Time is a way, in this thought process, of finding a way to resolve certain problems.The 'Palestinians' will never agree to it - think of all the other 'deadlines' that have been missed over the last 17 years.
For instance, using this approach in dealing with the loaded question of settlements, if there is a peace agreement it could conceivably be written that, in some 10 or 20 years, sovereignty over the areas would be transferred to the Palestinians.
Under this way of thinking, a way of thinking Netanyahu has alluded to now on more than one occasion, building a time element into any accord would open up different possibilities that would not exist were one to think that everything – as was done in the disengagement from Gaza – needed to be done immediately.
A type of accord that would mandate the almost immediate dismantling of settlements is almost unthinkable now with the current government, and considering the experience the country went through following the evacuation of Gaza.
What a careful listening of Netanyahu indicates, however, is an idea developing whereby an agreement would be constructed in such a way that people would begin to see the benefits of peace, and then – only later and if the agreement holds – would difficult steps be taken that would be extremely difficult to take now, such as removing an Israeli security presence from the Jordan River, or transferring sovereignty over settlements to the Palestinians.
But beyond that, the problem with this kind of thinking is that in international agreements, the implementation tends to be self-executing (think Hong Kong being returned to China after 99 years). Will the 'Palestinians' pay a price for not abiding by an agreement? How and how will that price be determined?
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:28 AM
1 Comments:
Carl, exactly. I'm even more inclined to favor Tzipi Hotovely's approach. The "demographic demon" is a bug bear that has prevented people from thinking rationally about the Land Of Israel. I find myself in agreement with Abu Bluff there should be a single unified country. I see it as being a Jewish State. With all the problems in dealing with the Arabs - this might take generations to solve. They won't be addressed by running away from them. They need to be dealt with head on: this is the responsible Zionist approach. Everything else, from Oslo to the so-called two state solution and now playing for time are just an evasion of reality. The truth is Israel can no more be divided than Solomon's baby. Nor should the Jew want any part of it surrendered to alien sovereignty. Holding on to this principle should be the end of any discussion. The Arabs will never accept a limited state so Israel might as well move to the alternative political horizon I posted about earlier.
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