Uri Avnery on Netanyahu's forthcoming speech, "his resounding response to Obama’s speech in Egypt."
Everything has been done to put the two events on the same level. Obama spoke at Cairo University? Netanyahu will speak at Bar-Ilan University, the religious right-wing institution that nurtured the murderer of Yitzhak Rabin.
But that is the only similarity. Obama outlined the contours of a New Middle East? Netanyahu will outline the contours of the Old Middle East. Obama spoke about a future of peace, cooperation and mutual respect? Netanyahu will speak about a past of Holocaust, violence, hatred and fears.
Netanyahu’s biggest problem is to make believe that the old is new…
Netanyahu will have to choose between three alternatives: a head-on
collision with the United States, a total change in his policy, or
resignation.
