Melanie Phillips lauds the clarifying moment during the joint press availability between Netanyahu and Obama on Friday.
Here’s the thing. Obama spoke correctly when he referred to the ‘1967 lines’ rather than ‘borders’. There are no 1967 borders. Israel actually has no borders. All it has are the 1949 ceasefire lines, which is where Israel was left when it fought off the attempt by five Arab armies to exterminate it at birth. These lines were referred to as the ‘Auschwitz borders’ because within them no country could possibly defend itself against its enemies. They left Israel at its narrowest point a mere nine miles wide -- as Netanyahu said, less than the Washington Beltway. A return to the 1967 lines would mean exposing Israel once more to the likelihood of destruction, and such a proposal runs counter to the spirit and the letter of UN Resolution 242. True Obama added ‘with land swaps’. But no realistic land swaps could make up for this fatal vulnerability.
When Obama was interviewed by a star-struck Andrew Marr on BBC TV this morning, he said the ‘1967 lines’ formula had always been accepted as the basis for a solution. Not true, as Dore Gold and Robert Satloff explain here. Not true, as Glenn Kessler explains in the Washington Post. Successive administrations carefully stepped round this minefield in accordance with Resolution 242. It is the Palestinians who talk about returning to the ‘1967 borders’. The sting in what Obama did was to adopt the Palestinian position as US policy. Wrote Kessler:
He did not articulate the 1967 boundaries as a ‘Palestinian goal’ but as U.S. policy... for a U.S. president, the explicit reference to the 1967 lines represented crossing the Rubicon.
What’s more, he appears to have ambushed Netanyahu with it. So the Bibimouse finally roared.
But will he continue to roar? History on that question is not promising.
At the request of Fatah, several Palestinian local councils in the Jerusalem area announced that they would boycott the US in protest against the veto.
The boycott includes US government officials and American journalists.
Palestinian Authority and Fatah officials have also called for a “day of rage” against the US and President Barack Obama on Friday.
On Tuesday, Fatah supporters staged a demonstration in east Jerusalem in protest against the Security Council veto. Similar demonstrations have taken place in a number of Palestinian cities, where Fatah supporters chanted slogans denouncing Obama as a “despicable” man.
The local councils said that they would boycott American aid groups and the US Consulate-General in Jerusalem.
Hatem Abdel Kader, a senior Fatah official and former PA minister for Jerusalem affairs, told The Jerusalem Post that he has called on Hamas and other Palestinian factions to join the anti-US boycott.
Abdel Kader said that the protests would continue until the US administration changes its position regarding the Palestinians. He also demanded that Obama publicly apologize to the Palestinians for voting against the anti-settlement resolution.
That's right. The 'Palestinians' are going to boycott the United States.
Now, if I'm an American taxpayer (which I am still), my reaction to this is, "Oh good. That means I don't have to give them any more aid money." Well, not quite....
PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced that he would be prepared to give up US aid that was dependent on political conditions.
He said that in 2010, the US gave the PA $223 million in financial aid to cover its deficit of $1.145 billion.
This did not include US aid to UNRWA, he said.
The 'Palestinians' are willing to give up the $223 million that the US provided to cover their budget deficit. How magnanimous of them. But they're not willing to give up the US contribution to UNRWA, which was $267 million in 2009 and $95 million by March 2010. Nor are they willing to give up the other aid money they get from the US, which was projected to total $502.9 million in 2010 and $550 million in 2011. That money goes for things like incitement on 'Palestinian Authority' television, paying stipends to the families of terrorists held in Israeli prisons and to the families of 'martyrs,' paying salaries of Hamas affiliates in Gaza, and lining the pockets of Abu Bluff, Fayyad and their friends.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
Melanie Phillips lauds the clarifying moment during the joint press availability between Netanyahu and Obama on Friday.
