Benjamin Netanyahu is Being a Dick...

[Big Orange]

BBC

Israeli PM 'ruins' peace chance
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak says an Israeli demand that Palestinians accept Israel as a Jewish state ruins the chances for a peace deal.

The demand was one of the conditions set by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he backed the creation of a Palestinian state for the first time.

He also asked that a Palestinian state be demilitarised. Palestinians have rejected the conditions.

The US has called Mr Netenyahu's stance an "important step forward".

The EU said Mr Netanyahu's comments were a step in the right direction, but not enough to raise relations with Israel to a higher level.

Egypt was the first Arab state to recognise Israel and a key mediator in Middle East peace negotiations.

Mr Mubarak said on Monday that he had told Mr Netanyahu that peace talks should be resumed.

"I have also told him loud and clear that the call for recognising Israel as a Jewish state would complicate matters and abort the chances of peace," the state-run Mena news agency quoted Mr Mubarak as telling military officials.

"I even warned him that this particular call would not be met by a favourable response from Egypt or beyond."

The Egyptian foreign ministry said it would continue to support US and international peace efforts, but that "the vision which the Israeli prime minister presented... is flawed and lacks many elements."

Mr Mubarak was responding to Mr Netanyahu's speech on Sunday in which he endorsed a Palestinian state for the first time.

Israeli Arabs' fears

In the speech, weeks after US President Barack Obama urged him to agree a two-state plan, Mr Netanyahu said the Palestinians must accept Israel as a Jewish state.

He said a Palestinian state must have no army, no control of its air space and no way of smuggling in weapons.

A Palestinian official has said the Israeli prime minister's conditions for a two-state solution "paralysed" the peace process, while a Hamas spokesman in Gaza called on Arab nations to "form stronger opposition" towards Israel.

BBC Arab Affairs analyst Magdi Abdelhadi says Palestinians suspect that Mr Netanyahu has moved the goal posts.

Recognising the Jewish nature of the Israel state would in effect mean that they will have to forgo one of their key demands: a negotiated settlement for the problem of the Palestinian refugees - those who either fled or were forced to leave their homes when Israel was established in 1948.

He adds that Israel regards the return of refugees as tantamount to the destruction of Israel as a state with a Jewish majority.

But the issue of the Jewish nature of Israel is arguably far more objectionable to the Palestinians who live inside Israel, otherwise knows as Israeli Arabs, he says.

They are opposed to defining Israel as a Jewish state, because they fear that, in their eyes, such a move would make them into second class citizens not only de facto but also de jure.

In Israel, Mr Netanyahu's words have drawn criticism from the left for not going far enough and from his own right-wing coalition for going too far.

A White House statement said Mr Obama believes a solution "can and must ensure both Israel's security and the fulfilment of the Palestinians' legitimate aspirations for a viable state, and he welcomes Prime Minister Netanyahu's endorsement of that goal".

Hmmmm, I wonder what kind of shit storm could be stirred up if our PM ranted that Britain should be recognized as a state for white Protestants?

[Edi]

Netanyahu offered as one of the "carrots" that no new Israeli settlements would be built. But reserved the right to expand existing ones, which is the same thing as no change whatsoever in any way. Only a fool would accept his offer and he's already got a well earned reputation as a lying shit who is guaranteed to break every promise he makes anyway.

[bobalot]

This is not the major issue.

Benjamin Netanyahu said nothing about halting settlement construction or reversing them despite Barrack Obama asking him to immediately stop construction of them. At the moment Palestinians in the west bank live in little Bantustans surrounded by settlements. The settlements sit on most of the fertile land and water. Palestinians are not even allowed to drill their own water. Just have a look at this map from 2002.

A Palestinian state is simply not viable as long as the settlements stay. Already 200,000 Settlers are there and more are moving there each year. All that a Palestinian 'state' will be, is a economically unviable state that relies on Israel for its food (since largest sections of its most fertile land have/are being annexed), water, electricity, etc. It will be nothing more that a series of interlocking pen up prisons with cheap labour for Israel.

It is simply slow motion colonisation, with Israel as the last real western colonial power. Lets face facts, if they weren't Jews or white, most of the western world say what they are doing is criminal in this day and age. A relic from a previous age. The Palestinians should just dump the idea of an independent state and demand the vote instead.

It's funny, these people are the 'good' Palestinians who didn't elect Hamas (and are being armed and supported with cash from Israel) and are still being shit all over anyway.

[Memnon]

If even Mubarak is making this kind of statement towards Netanyahu, then a possible Muslim Brotherhood government + Netanyahu would be a pretty damn big problem (moreso than the Brotherhood and Livpni). Mubarak's health is failing, iirc. If Mubarak is displaced, then that leaves, what - Turkey and France as mediators.

[mingo]

In my opinion, the only way to get Israel to get serious about making peace is for the US to stop backing them up. If they had to live with the results of their provocative actions, they would be less likely to be assholes.

[Big Orange]

Israel might as well be based around civil rights instead of racial/religious rights, although the population growth of Orthodox Jews in relation to the stagnating/declining population of Westernized Jews is a demographic detriment.

And yes Netanyahu is turning a blind eye to the growth of established settlements:

Despite Netanyahu's speech, building in W. Bank settlements continues apace
By Amos Harel
demilitarized Palestinian state, construction continued apace in the West Bank, about 30 kilometers east of Bar-Ilan University, the venue of Netanyahu's speech. At the Nofei Nehemia outpost, construction workers completed four prefabricated homes on Sunday. Nofei Nehemia, about two kilometers east of Ariel, is one of 26 outposts the government of former prime minister Ariel Sharon promised the U.S. to evacuate.

For the past two years, settlers have avoided moving homes from place to place, as the Civil Administration and the military have upped their efforts to thwart such activity. In response, caravans have been "smuggled" in parts to outposts and settlements, where they are then assembled.

In his speech, Netanyahu skirted most controversies with the U.S. regarding settlement. He promised that no new settlements would be constructed and that no land would be appropriated to expand existing settlements. However, he did insist on the continued "natural growth" of existing settlements.

In the past few weeks, construction has been noted in several other outposts, too, including Mitzpeh Danny near Ma'aleh Michmash; Havat Yair, west of Ariel; and Havat Avigail in the southern Hebron Hills - all three included on the list Israel promised the Bush administration it would evacuate.

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[K. A. Pital]

Hey, people really care what Netanyahu says? They must be dumber than wood. The guy is as honest as Fantomas.

[Big Orange]

Being dishonest does not necessarily mean dumb and he seems to be intentionally fucking things up. And many people unfortunately listened to the even duller and more unpleasant GWB to everybody's detriment.

Anyway here is a interesting opinion on Netanyahu's unhelpful feet dragging:

Netanyahu offers half an olive branch
Thursday, June 18, 2009 at 3:40 PM

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to grasp the key to a settlement with the Palestinians: the issue of Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory. Instead he insisted on restrictions on a future Palestinian state that Israel would never accept for itself.

PRESIDENT Obama must be disappointed in the speech earlier this week by Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. There is much in it about peace, and how he wants it, but underneath the foliage of talk is a man who does not budge from a position with no promise.

Netanyahu said the "fundamental condition" for peace "is the public, binding and sincere Palestinian recognition of Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish People." That is half of it; the other half is Israel's recognition of a homeland for the Palestinian people that is not occupied, blockaded or cut into Swiss cheese by settlements under the Israeli flag.

The settlements are mini-invasions of the other side's homeland. Obama asked that Israel stop all settlement expansion. It was an entirely reasonable request — in fact, a minimal one. A just peace will require Palestinian sovereignty of a contiguous piece of territory, a thing every Israeli settler's house makes more difficult. But Netanyahu said, "The settlers are not enemies of peace."

In fact, they are.

Netanyahu also insisted that there be no Palestinian right of return, a demand Israel makes for demographic reasons, and that none of Jerusalem be in the new Palestine, which it makes for political reasons. The first of these demands may be necessary for the survival of Israel. The second is not.

Netanyahu demanded that any Palestinian state be demilitarized, so that it have no army and no control of its airspace. After so many decades of fighting, it is understandable that an Israeli would want that. But the Palestinians are the ones living under military occupation. They have suffered more casualties than the Israelis have. They might also imagine a demilitarization.

Any settlement has to be fair, and be seen to be fair, by reasonable people on both sides. The conditions outlined by Netanyahu do not meet that test. The administration should review what leverage it has to move Israel's leader from his unpromising position.

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