Israel Matzav

The definition of idiocy is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result

Albert Einstein allegedly said that the definition of idiocy is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Former IDF intelligence chief Amos Yadlin is suggesting that the Israeli government act like idiots.

Israel should put the Clinton parameters from 2001, or the Olmert proposals from 2008, back on the table to avoid "losing the world," even though it is clear the Palestinians will not accept them, former Military Intelligence head Amos Yadlin said Tuesday.

Yadlin, speaking in Tel Aviv at the Calcalist conference, said putting forward these proposals – which both call for generous territorial concessions and the division of Jerusalem – would allow Israel to refill its "battery of legitimacy." "Unfortunately, as a Military Intelligence head who knows the Palestinian strategy, they will reject it, but it will return to us the moral leadership and the legitimacy that we lost," he said. Then, he added, Israel can take the steps it feels it needs to determine its borders.

You've got to be kidding. The 'Palestinians' already have - and think they have pocketed - the Clinton and Olmert concessions. They can't be put on the table again if for no other reason than that there is no table on which to put them. The 'Palestinians' will not even come to the table without more concessions (e.g. a 'settlement freeze') and even when Israel provides those concessions, the 'Palestinians' will not come to the table with Netanyahu.

As to the 'international community,' making these offers will not make them love us, nor will it refill our 'battery of legitimacy.' It might push us off the front page of the New York Times for a week. Big deal.

But what such an offer would do is to once again reinforce in the 'Palestinians' the view that they need not make any concessions to bring about peace. Rather, all they have to do is to sit back and wait for Israel to finish negotiating against itself.

And as to Israel 'taking the steps it feels it needs to determine its borders,' that reeks of unilateral expulsion to me. Don't  go there. The US military determined more than 40 years ago that any concession Israel makes in Judea and Samaria will endanger our security. That's enough for me.

If doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is idiocy, what does this proposal make Mr. Yadlin?

Labels: Amos Yadlin, Bill Clinton, Ehud K. Olmert, negotiations without preconditions, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, settlement freeze, two-state solution

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:54 AM