Thursday, May 07, 2009

Netanyahu's speech

In his short but significant address to the AIPAC Conference in Washington DC on Tuesday, PM Netanyahu, speaking by video-link from his Jerusalem office, made three important points:
1. He is ready to meet with the representatives of the Palestine Authority at any time, as soon as possible, without preconditions to renew peace negotiations.
2. He would like negotiations to proceed on three fronts, as well as the political talks there should be committees meeting on economic and security matters.
3. That in order for there to be true recognition on each side the PA must accept Israel as a Jewish State.
Almost immediately both the PA and Hamas rejected Netanyahu's proposals, from the area as well as by their spokesmen in Washington. They criticized Netanyahu for not using the phrase "two state solution" as a kind of touchstone. But, they failed to see anything positive in Netanyahu's plan for trying to improve the economic situation of Palestinians in the West Bank, and also to improve the security situation by increasing support for training and deployment of additional PA police/security forces in collaboration with the US program being organized by Lt.Gen Keith Dayton.
Pres. Peres met with Pres. Obama in the White House, soon after Netanyahu's speech, and also after his own speech to the AIPAC Conference. Following this meeting, Peres said that Israel and the US are "100% on the same page." He was principally referring to policies towards Iran, i.e. that tougher sanctions must be used to persuade Iran to change it's policies of trying to develop nuclear weapons and threatening Israel and the West, but also to leave all options "on the table," which is a catch phrase meaning the possibility of military options in the final analysis.
There are several interesting aspects of this situation; first is that when Obama and Netanyahu meet in June, the question is will Obama embrace Netanyahu's program, of the reevaluation of Israel's peace proposals, or will he nevertheless try to persuade (or force) Netanyahu to fall in line with the previous proposals, particularly the "two state solution" as exemplified in the Bush Administration programs of the Road Map and Annapolis? Another issue is whether or not Iran is considered the foremost issue in foreign policy and/or the Palestinian issue. Obama is on record as saying that the Palestinian problem is the basic one in the Middle East, a popular viewpoint, that however is not based on factual analysis, while Israel and other commentators regard the Iran problem as the most urgent issue. In this view the Paslestinain problem cannot be solved while Iran is threatening Israel and arming Hizbollah and Hamas to attack Israel.
Another interesting aspect is that Pres. Peres, the architect of the Oslo Accords (remember that Yossi Beilin known as the architect of the Accords was Peres' assistant in the Knesset at the time) has turned around almost 180 degrees. Of course, as President he cannot steer his own political course for Israel, since that is the responsibility of the PM and the Government. But, that did not stop previous Presidents, such as Ezer Weizmann, from expressing their own independent positions. However, now Peres never mentioned the "land for peace" formula that was the basis for Oslo and other failures, but kept to the formula of the Netanyahu Government, not mentioning the "two state solution" but emphasising Iran as the major threat to Israel and the West.
While the AIPAC Convention is continuing in Washington, FM Lieberman is on his first foreign trip to selected European countries. Although he is often referred to in the media as a "far right-wing politician," his mission is to persuade these countries that the Iranian problem must be resolved before there can be any progress on Palestine. His first stop was Rome where he met with FM Frattini and Pres. Berlusconi, meetings that were both cordial and effective. He now goes on to France, Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland, all countries in the EU that are expected to be sympathetic to the Israeli viewpoint.
It seems that the Netanyahu Government is taking the initiative and trying to impose it's revised policies on the Middle East situation, that could be a good thing for Israel and for the region.
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For more information and the texts of Netanyahu's and other's speeches at the AIPAC Conferenece go to the web site of The Israel Project www.theisraelproject.org

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