The Speech: Netanyahu Folds A Card - But Maintains His PrinciplesThere is no such thing as a demilitarized state, and there will certainly be no such thing as a demilitarized state of Palestine. Even without a state, Palestinians have managed to smuggle in large amounts of weaponry, including tens of thousands of missiles.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has not experienced an ideological shift. He knows as well as anyone that any Palestinian state on the mountains and hills of Judea and Samaria poses a severe threat to Israel.
He also knows that the entire world supports a Palestinian state, as does half of Israel. Given all of the challenges facing Israel, getting bogged down in a dispute over the principle of a Palestinian state is not, in his view, worthwhile right now. It will inevitably result in a clash with the U.S. and division at home. Better - he has concluded - to maintain the support of a majority of Israelis and of Israel's friends in the U.S.
I don't know if he's right and I agonize that he may be making a terrible mistake. But I understand his decision, which puts the burden on the Obama Administration to make a persuasive case for how a two-state solution would not pose a severe threat to Israeli security.
Contrary to popular opinion, Netanyahu was correct to wait until now to conditionally accept some form of Palestinian state. Had Netanyahu done so during his visit to the White House, President Obama would have still picked a fight with Israel to curry favor with the Arab and Muslim world prior to and at his speech in Cairo. Better to take Obama's punches and move on.
Though Netanyahu has not agreed to completely cease construction in Judea and Samaria, it will now be more difficult for Obama and Hillary Clinton to continue bashing Israel. Even before today's speech, this morning on Meet The Press, David Gregory sharply questioned VP Joe Biden as to why only Israel is being pressured by the Obama Administration.
Aside from his conditional acceptance of a Palestinian state, I liked Netanyahu's speech. Netanyahu set forth essential truths about why the Jewish people are in their homeland in Israel, and why there has been no peace in Israel, that in recent years have been ignored and left unsaid by Israeli leaders.
In his reference to the sacrifice of so many Israelis, today was the first time I can remember Netanyahu mentioning the loss of his brother Yoni in a public forum.
There was one unfortunate omission from the speech: Netanyahu spoke about Gilad Shalit, but not the other Israeli MIAs. Zachary Baumel, Tzvi Feldman, Yehuda Katz, Ron Arad and Guy Hever were not mentioned today. Let us hope that Netanyahu remembers them soon.
posted on 6/14/2009
