Does the US get it?
In his speech to the Knesset's opening session on Monday, Prime Minister Netanyahu threw a diplomatic glove down in front of the 'Palestinians.' "If the Palestinian leadership will unequivocally say to its people that it recognizes Israel as the national state of the Jewish people, I will be ready to convene my Cabinet and ask for another moratorium on building," Netanyahu told the Knesset at the opening of its winter session. "Just as the Palestinians expect us to recognize their state, we expect reciprocal treatment.”Unsurprisingly, within minutes, the 'Palestinians' rejected the Prime Minister's offer.
He said that a clear statement by Abbas on the Jewish character of Israel “would create wide-ranging trust among the Israeli people, who have lost trust in the Palestinian will for peace over the last 10 years."
He reminded legislators that the 10-month freeze that expired three weeks ago was designed to meet Abbas’ condition for sitting down with Israel for face-to-face discussions on the proposed new Arab country within Israel’s current borders and to be headed by the PA.
"The Palestinians wasted 10 months and now they demand to continue the [settlement] freeze]. I hope their demand isn't a ploy to avoid the concessions that must be made in order to achieve a peace deal,” Prime Minister Netanyahu said. "Unfortunately up until now the Palestinians have not responded to this call and the United States is searching for different ways to continue the talks," he said.
The Prime Minister quoted David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister, who once declared, "The State that will rise will be Jewish in its function, purpose, and aim. Not a country of Jews settled in a land but a state for Jews, the Jewish people.”
The spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday rejected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's offer to extend the settlement freeze in the territories for the PA's recognition of Israel as the national state of the Jewish people.It doesn't have to be. Negotiations are about trading something one side wants for something the other side wants, whether or not they are related. That's something the 'Palestinians' have never understood. But does the United States? Here's State Department spokesman PJ Crowley:
"The topic of the Jewishness of the state is not connected at all to the issue [of the building freeze]," said the spokesman.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said that "both sides need to take steps if we are to see the necessary conditions for negotiations to continue," while apparently sidestepping a response to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's offer to extending the building freeze, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.So much for the US assigning blame for the lack of progress in the 'negotiations.' I guess that only happens when Israel can be blamed.
I got a lot of anguished emails and comments on Monday night over Netanyahu's 'offer.' I thought it was a brilliant and cost-free move. Look at it closely: It doesn't offer a freeze at all. It says that Netanyahu will take the measure up with the cabinet, where most of the cabinet is opposed to further extending the freeze. It also doesn't give a time-period for the extension. Had this been a press conference and not a Knesset speech, Netanyahu's response would have been something like "the length of the extension will depend upon the quality of the recognition given by Predient Abbas." On top of that, Netanyahu had to know at the outset that Abu Mazen would reject any offer that would require him to concede Israel's Jewishness. So in return for mouthing words that mean nothing, Netanyahu shows once again who is conceding nothing.
Did the State Department understand all that? Maybe. Will they understand it eventually? Bill Clinton's White House did.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:10 PM
10 Comments:
I think it was setting a terrible precedent. The Palestinians should not be rewarded at the expense of the Jews for doing the obvious. Decent behavior should not to be have solicited with a bribe and Carl - it should not have to come at the cost of your rights or mine.
Then again, I don't expect the Palestinians to ever do the right thing because they are not interested in peace and they do not seek co-existence alongside the Jewish people.
Even if the State Department does get it (can they really all be stupid enough not to?), will it affect there actions and policies? I doubt it.
U.S. supporters of Israel must get out to the polls on Nov. 2 and vote for a U.S. that does "get it"--President Obama inevitably veers towards a strategy of "boxing Bibi in"--but a pro-GOP, pro-Israel wave this coming month at the polls can put up its own "security fence".
No, the state department under Obama will never get it.
And I'm sorry to say it--Obama is horrible to Israel and completely hostile, but George W. Bush really wasn't all that clued-in either. He pushed the pointless "peace talks," and he got more concessions from the Israelis because he was perceived as pro-Israel. But he was kind of clueless as well. It was Condoleeza Rice who first started referring to East Jerusalem as lumped in with "the West Bank." And if I recall correctly, it was under Bush that the de facto building freeze for Jews started in Jerusalem.
That being the case, you can bet the farm that an Obama state department will never, never get it.
And, Lynda, in summer '06, Condoleeza Rice repeatedly interfered with Israel's ground response. The State Dept needs to be re-worked. When you think about it, their people get posted to the 20 (or whatever) countries with incited (and irrational) hostility toward Israel. And then they go back and influence the office. I met Condoleeza's prof from grad school once. I assumed (duh) that he was (R) and he did speak supportingly of Israel, but so sorry he is a solid (D). I haven't checked back to see whether he's changed his affiliation, but there you have it. When an (R) president wins, he/she needs to propagate (R) principles. And the State Department is supposed to work for us, the voters. This seems obvious, but it isn't. I actually liked most of Pres. Bush's actions, but I always remember him holding hands and dancing with the sword for his dad's oil family, Prince Abdulluh. Maybe we can find an (R) who isn't all wound up with the ME oil people.
And keep in mind, when voting, that the (D) party leader (Obama) believes that genocide is not reason enough for the U.S. military to be out and about.
Sunlight,
If you haven't seen this, you ought to see it.
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/flashbks/saudiara/kaplan.htm
It explains the State Department's favoritism for Arabs.
I am fairly sure I blogged it but cannot find my blog post right now.
Sunlight,
Found it.
http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2009/03/state-department-arabists-rush-to.html
This was a brilliant move by Netanyahu. Either the 'palis' are ready, willing, and able to negotiate for peace, or they are not. And if they are not, it makes no sense to either try to sit down with them, or to give them incentive to sit down.
Yet again, the 'palis' missed an opportunity. Call Netanyahu's "bluff". Go ahead. Concede Israel is a Jewish state. Then you will get some things you want.
But they can't do that. It would expose the whole lie that underpins the 'palis' narrative.
This was brilliant and will pay dividends for decades. While the 'palis' leadership bemoans construction, you can point out that once they are serious about negotiation, they will eventually need to concede this issue. So until they are ready to negotiate, as signaled by conceding this issue, no further discussions should be held, no further concessions should be given, and any nitwit foreign minister who insists upon these idiotic actions should be appropriately upbraided, in public, for publicly pushing something that cannot work.
Because the 'palis' failed to call Bibi's bluff, he, and every future Israeli government gets to tell the 'palis' "when you are ready, call us, agree to this, and we will discuss next steps. But until then, stay away from us."
The (not so) funny thing is that America and the UN already recognized Israel as a Jewish state in 1948.
60 years later Israel ought to act like it and stop begging for acceptance. We got it already!
Post a Comment
<< Home