Benjamin Netanyahu has now joined the chorus of Israeli officials who say that Israel must avert a one-state future because it would be suicidal for the Jewish state. I haven’t seen this in the mainstream US press, but it’s in the Forward, picking up Haaretz, and the Times of Israel:
“The purpose of the future agreement with the Palestinians is to prevent the eventuality of a binational state and to guarantee stability and security.”
What will Netanyahu do about his fear of democracy? Surely nothing concrete to try and save the Jewish state; Netanyahu made no mention of John Kerry’s white horse, the new Arab Peace Initiative. Though even David Makovsky of the Israel lobby group WINEP is pushing that one.
At our site, Marc Ellis has mocked the new initiative‘s approval of “land swaps.” Yousef Munayyer at the Daily Beast also points out the absurdity as licensed theft:
Most absurd, however, is the renewed effort to change language in the Arab Peace Initiative to accommodate Israeli colonial behavior. Kerry sought and received statements from Arab foreign ministers regarding “land swaps” as part of a territorial agreement. After this, Kerry hailed the statement he’d been working to secure as a “very big step forward.”
If this is a step in any direction it is indeed a step backwards. PLO negotiators, the same party recognized by the Arab League, have long embraced the notion of land swaps. In fact, as leaked documents in the Palestine Papers archive show, land swaps were thoroughly discussed in negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis then led by Ehud Olmert. The problem was that when Palestinian negotiators objected to the extent of additional Palestinian land the Israelis wanted to keep, the U.S. representatives acted as an enforcer for the Israeli position. Then Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice responded to Ahmed Qurei’s objection to Israel keeping Ma’ale Addumim, a massive colony deep inside the West Bank, by saying “Then you won’t have a state!”
The message from the U.S. was simple: If the Israelis don’t get to keep what they want, even if they took it illegally, then you, the Palestinians, will live under perpetual occupation.
This is not the first time U.S. mediators try to manufacture progress out of a step backwards
Israel say its a democracy but fear…democracy?
Netanyahu simply cant accept jews/arabs having the same right.
Israel has always paid lip service to 2 states …Netanyahu latest statement is just more of the same….he’s just using the Israel aversion to One State to make dummies think he will work hard on 2 States to avoid the One State solution ….just more babble…..he has no intention of allowing either one.
Another good catch Phil, revealing what Zionists truly fear. If nothing else this shows how a Palestinian demand for equal rights in a single democratic state would change the whole dynamic with respect to Israel. I can’t see any other way for the Palestinians to empower themselves.
Just look at a map of The Wall existing and proposed to see what Netanyahu has in mind for the Palestinian “state”.
Its time to recap the Iraq war against the development in ME. This is what 30 years ago Oded Yinon envisaged and PNAC popularized it wrapping it in US flag.
America wants this problem go away but it is being tethered to all the whims of Israel that keeps on morphing to new mutant every day . Even a weak saddam was a Saddam .So he has to go.Even a weak Iraq was still an intact Iraq with potential to stop Israeli hegemony , so it has to be balkanized . Israel knew it but it taught US a different lesson in forecast ” life will be fine and people will be happy. They will be a beacon of hope to Iranian and other and oil be cheaper” . Cheap oil would have made Saudi weaker but that did not happen . So to make it weaker , a slow process of destabilization around it along with most vicious propaganda had to ensue until it yields .And it yielded . Following 911, there was virtual war in the media against Saudi for years . Even Boston Bomber was thought by FOX , could be used against Saudi . What Saudi could do to escape the wrath of Israel? Either change the ruling system or bow to the demands from Israel. Palestine is the goat that they can sacrifice at the altar .But the god will demand more. We will hear after Syrian capitulation again from Saudi another new initiative where they will agree to allow Israel to remove Israeli Arabs and West Bank Plaestiniains to Jordan or to Iraq or to Syria in the face of manufactured violence in its backyard.That development will undermine the confidence of Saudi and enrage it against Iran on one hand , on another hand force it to agree to new Israeli demands. Using anger of Saudi ( custodian of Mecca a good propaganda trope to mobilize muslim support or numb their opposition ) against Iran , USA under pressure from Israel will ratchet up pressure on Iran .Saudi will be asked to generate right emotion of hatred against Iranian rulers even if Iran were not to be found doing anything in its backyard ( remember that plan to kill Saudi ambassador ) . Iraq war’s benefit to reach Israeli bank was delayed by few years but it is making its way slowly.