Of course, it's all shadowboxing—Obama's latest Middle East policy speech, Netanyahu's hardline rejoinder before both houses of Congress. The peace process is not going anywhere, and it can't. The Palestinians don't intend to negotiate in good faith, and they don't intend to reach a two-state solution. They want all of Palestine, nothing less. Hamas says it simply: Abbas deploys a forked tongue. Their intention is the same.
But Netanyahu isn't playing the game, and this is costing Israel dearly in the international arena. He should have cast aside his internal political calculus and safety net and shadowboxed with the rest of them. He is in the politically enviable position of having a wide and deep coalition; he can afford defections, and the centrist Kadima Party, led by Tzipi Livni, is always there in the wings to take up the slack if Netanyahu appears too conciliatory for the likes of Avigdor Liberman or Eli Yishai.
The Bill Clinton parameters of December 2000 are the only diplomatic game in town, and in effect they were what Obama was reiterating. Clinton said that a demilitarized (Obama—"nonmilitarized") Palestinian state should be established on 94–96 percent of the West Bank, 100 percent of the Gaza Strip and the Arab half of Jerusalem; Obama said a two-state solution based on the 1967 lines, with exchanges of territory. Same thing. Israel will retain 4–6 percent of the West Bank (which contain the big settlement blocs) and give the Palestinians an equivalent chunk of land from Israeli territory in exchange.
Clinton was more explicit about resolving the refugee problem: Refugees to the future Palestinian state or resettle outside the Middle East. Obama preferred to be less explicit on this point—losing brownie points among Israelis—and simply said that Israel should remain a Jewish-majority state, the state of the Jewish people. The meaning was the same—no substantial influx of Arab refugees into Israel.
Returning to the premiership two years ago, Netanyahu appeared to free himself from the ideological shackles of Greater Israel and enunciated the coda—a two-state solution. His two-state vision and Obama's (and Clinton's) diverge only on two major points: He would like to retain East Jerusalem (a "united" Jerusalem) for Israel and an Israeli security presence along the Jordan River, so that the Palestinians are not tempted to invite Iraqi or Iranian troops into their West Bank state, directly threatening the heart of Israel.
The second point is bridgeable—Obama spoke of a gradual Israeli withdrawal, perhaps twenty or thirty years hence, from the Jordan River line. If the Palestinians can remain peaceful for that duration, proving their ability to cleave to peace, they will have earned—and generated—Israeli trust. So, by then, few Israelis will object to relinquish the river's edge.
And Jerusalem is something Netanyahu will have to overcome, within his own soul and in the Israeli political arena. His predecessors Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert did so. Ariel Sharon was probably also moving in that direction. Netanyahu will have to, if he is to offer the world a convincing and credible vision of peace. (The Arab world cannot live with a formula that does not give the Palestinians their—demographic—half of Jerusalem.)
But, again, this is all shadowboxing. The Palestinians will never agree to give up the "right of return," the mantra and ethos of their national movement, in a sense, their identity. And they will never agree to a settlement that includes a Jewish state in the bulk of Palestine.
So Netanyahu will never concretely be called upon to give up East Jerusalem. But to retain for Israel a modicum of international sympathy and support, he should have played, and must take the bull by the horns and play, the game, go through with the charade and shadowbox with the best of them. That's a large part of what it means, in Israel's unfortunate, unappetizing geopolitical context, to be a leader.
Image by Stpeter09
Comments
Very disappointing commentary on Netanyahu's speech. No balls in this at all. Caroline Glick is the writer with balls a plenty: "The people of Israel and our many friends around the world will continue to stand behind him proudly if he continues to lead us as well and wonderfully as he did this week." Standing up to bullies is the only way to go, even when those bullies are the US president and the Western world's leftist goons. Shadow boxing is effectively appeasement and ultimately lying. Better to die than to live a lie.
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If it is ever reached, the current and any other artificial “peace agreement” will be illegitimate before it is ever signed because (1) all people living in Palestine regardless of religion, race, origin, etc. (hereinafter “All People of Palestine”) were never given a choice on how they want their land to be governed, and (2) all contracts signed under duress are null and void.The biggest problem in Palestine is that the Zionist regime never offered a choice to All People of Palestine on how they want to govern their land because the Zionist regime cannot exist as a democratic entity. If there was ever any democratic process in Palestine, Zionists would have been outvoted and the Zionist regime would have never existed. That is why the Zionist regime is the occupier because it does not offer choice (i.e. democracy), but instead imposes its regime (i.e. occupies). Imagine if Russians would simply occupy a town in the U.S. where they are in significant numbers and attempt to create a Russian state there without giving the rest of the Americans living there a choice. Imagine then if they would try to institute a “peace agreement” that would attempt to legitimize their occupation. The “peace agreement” would logically and legally be illegitimate because the Americans were not given a choice. Under all countries’ laws, any contract is null and void if it is signed under duress. The current Palestine “peace agreement” process reminds me of The Godfather movie where the mafia boss (i.e. the Zionist regime) made a guy “an offer he could not refuse” by placing a gun (i.e. Zionist conventional and nuclear arsenal) to his head and making him sign the contract. Like the mafia boss’ offer, any “peace agreement” other than the choice for All People of Palestine is a crime, and the contract is legally null and void. The bottom line is that All People of Palestine never wanted to divide their land into artificial two states the way the occupation and this “peace agreement” attempt to divide it. From the beginning of the Zionist regime to its unavoidable end, All People of Palestine and the region never wanted the Zionist regime and they do not want it even more after all the atrocities the Zionist regime committed. I just cannot believe how the Zionist regime can be so ignorant to think that this or any other “peace agreement” that does not allow people to choose how they want to be governed will last and ensure its people’s survival. The Zionist regime fails to realize that no matter if it succeeds in muscling this “peace agreement” by unspeakable historic coercion tens of millions of moral people around the world will oppose it until it is corrected, and until justice and free choice prevail. Also, ever increasing number of Jewish people are realizing that Zionism is becoming a destructive force for them and are leading the global resistance to it.Feel free to copy this comment, email it to other bloggers, and repost it on other blogs, newspaper websites, Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking websites, and include it in any correspondence/lobbying with senators, state representatives and any other public officials so the public learns the truth…
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It appears that sharing and reposting others’ comments is becoming a trend. You can definitely copy, repost, or email mine to anyone including lobbying senators, state representatives and any other public officials who shape our country’s foreign policies. The main Zionist claim is that they have a supreme right to some of Palestinian territory because they lived there thousands of years ago. Let’s examine the core and real nature of this claim.Firstly, this claim is mistaken and selfish in its core concept because Zionists fail to recognize that history is a continuum and that there were other people living in majority in Palestine before the Jews and also after the Jews. Zionists simply cut history at a convenient point for them and claim ancestral ties to the land as of that convenient point.Secondly, whatever the claim, it is beyond absurd to try to shape modern world based on thousands of years old maps. Imagine if the rest of the world would be reshaped by who was on the land thousands of years ago. It would cause horrific wars, countless refugees, and unimaginable human suffering, exactly what is happening in Palestine. Thirdly and most disturbing, Zionist goal was to establish a Jewish state wherever possible. Palestine may have been a preference, but Palestine was not the only location that Zionists planned as their state in modern times. Another location was Argentina where Jews have been migrating for hundreds of years for the purpose of establishing a state. Also, locations in Europe were on the list and that’s why the Catholic Church was killing/expelling Jews since Roman times (read the history of the Holly Inquisition). Whatever the location, Zionist plan was to simply occupy the people living on the land even if that would mean imposing a regime worst than Nazi Germany’s from which they escaped. And Zionists would just use a different ideological coloring than the one used in Palestine in the attempt to rationalize the occupation. In conclusion, the main claim on which the Zionist regime is built in Palestine is erroneous, selfish, and a lie. I am categorically against generalizing, and recognize that many Jews are against the crimes the Zionist regime is committing and that many Jews are leading the global resistance to it. They should be proud.
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Imagine in the current time if France would want to create its own state in Michigan and separate it from the U.S. French are a minority in Michigan so democratic vote on the separation would not work because they would be outvoted by the rest of the Americans living in Michigan. So imagine if they had a historic opportunity when the U.S. is at its weakest and militarily occupy a part of Michigan and impose a regime where only French can vote and all the others who lived there cannot. Furthermore, the occupiers rename the occupied part of Michigan as the “French State” where not only that Americans are not welcome, but they are systematically expelled over time creating huge refugee camps in nearby states of Indiana and Ohio. Imagine then that at that point in history the artificial organization called the United Nations is full of French supporters and somehow that makes the occupation “legal” and Americans who fight for their homes in the occupied part of Michigan are labeled as terrorists. The occupation is a part of a careful log-term plan (i.e. Zionism) of acquiring land by French, so literally days after the occupation is implemented (what a coordinated plan!) the occupiers import millions of other French from all over the world to increase their population in Michigan from around 100,000 to over 5 Million in a short period. Then Americans resist and fight to regain the occupied part of Michigan, but Russia steps in, sends weapons, cash, and everything else the occupiers need to sustain the occupation. What do you think all of us Americans would feel? We would hate French first, and then all of their supporters (Russia in this analogy) that make the occupation of our land possible. Still questioning yourself why people in the Middle East and other parts of the world do not like us? Because our Zionist controlled government, not the people, supported the very exact scenario as described above against our will and with our tax money making us accomplices in this unspeakable crime. The scenario that would outrage all of us Americans and make us fight against it if it happened in Michigan or anywhere else in the U.S.This comment is not intended to make derogatory remarks about France and Russia. It is merely used as an example of how Americans would be outraged and fight back in the same situation as the forced establishment of the Zionist regime and its occupation of Palestine.Urge your state representatives and senators to immediately stop any remaining support for the Zionist regime. Much of the support already stopped because of the increasing pressure on this issue, but we Americans need to completely distance ourselves from this oppressive regime and start actively opposing it.