Obama is no friend of Israel’s
By Ted Belman
In his Cairo speech, Obama said
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The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop.
Clearly he didn’t say “the legitimacy of construction in the settlements” or that “construction” in the settlements must stop. No, he was referring to the settlements themselves. Ominous.
The construction does not violate previous agreements as he avers. As I pointed out in What Settlement Freeze Commitment? Israel is fully entitled to continue building so long as the Arabs continue violence and incitement.
Obama also likes to say we should focus on the future and not on the past. In this speech he said,
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“But if we choose to be bound by the past, we will never move forward. [..]
… to focus on the future..”
Yet rather than to call for a new beginning starting from today, he choose to go back and attempt to undue the settlements before focusing on the future.
Obama wants Netanyahu to accept the two-state solution and to stop construction in the settlements, if not the settlements themselves.
My suggestion to Netanyahu is to accept the two state solution providing Israel is recognized as a Jewish state and retains all settlement blocks including Ariel and Maaleh Adumin. Such a position will shift the focus from Palestinian statehood to Israel, its recognition and its borders.
He should condition his acceptance on whether such a state will be limited in the interests of the security of Israel.
Put another way, Israel rejects a Palestinian state based on the Saudi Plan but is amenable to one based on Israel’s Plan.
There is no way the Arabs would accept Israel’s Plan just as there is no way Israel would accept the Saudi Plan.
Thus the peace process will remain stale-mated. Then we can start working on alternate solutions.
My view is different: propose the annexation of Yesha if the Arabs do not begin negotiation by a date certain. Forty two years is more than enough time for the issue to have been left open. The land for peace school has failed. It is time to try a new approach that takes Israel’s interests into account. If the Arabs remain intransigent, they will have only themselves to blame for the demise of the TSS. After all, how long should a country put normal life for Jews on hold? Forever? Nature abhors a vacuum and the axiom is Israel must press forward with its legitimate claim to the Land Of Israel regardless of what the rest of the world thinks.
Comment by NormanF — June 5, 2009 @ 2:19 am