De Israelische Terreur 880

Israel Offers a State and a Half

Monday 15 June 2009

by: Steve Weissman, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Could Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu become the Richard Nixon of the Middle East, as Barack Obama invited him to do? Could he break with his hard-line past and reach out to the Palestinians the way Nixon did with the Chinese? Or will he pay lip service to peace even as he does everything he can to keep the Palestinians from ever getting a viable state of their own? Watching it on TV Sunday night, I came away deeply depressed by the spirit and substance of Netanyahu's speech, though the Obama White House diplomatically welcomed his acceptance of a Palestinian state, however limited, as an "important step forward."

    Netanyahu was uncharacteristically clear and straightforward about what his coalition government would and would not accept. "The territory in Palestinian hands must be demilitarized in other words, without an army, without control of airspace, and with effective security safeguards ..." he insisted.

    "A fundamental condition for ending the conflict is a public, binding and honest Palestinian recognition of the state of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people."

    Netanyahu set these as the primary preconditions for his acceptance of even a limited Palestinian state.

    "If we receive this undertaking, for demilitarization and the security arrangements required by Israel, and if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people," he declared, "we will be prepared for a true peace agreement, to reach a solution of a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside the Jewish state."

Lees verder: http://www.truthout.org/061509J