This is old news (with the Iranian clerics in secret conclave in Qum to decide the fate of Iran, who's thinking any more about the Netanyahu speech endorsing a demilitarized Palestinian state while demanding that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state? But for the sake of keeping the record complete, I'm transcribing here the discussion that we had on Facebook in response to the news earlier this week.
Lenny Levin thinks Netanyahu has found the center. Yasher koach!
David Stolow at 11:38 on 15 June
Netanyahu returns to what was his position when he was last PM and all the usual suspects have all the usual reactions. The difference between Bibi and Obama now is that Bibi figures he won't really have to do anything since the Pals will give him and out while Obama means it. As for the natural growth nonsense, suppose someone wanted to pass a zoning law in Maplewood that gave the legal right, ahead of any other buyer, to the children of Maplewood residents to buy or build in Maplewood?
Lenny Levin at 14:58 on 15 June
Obama's strategy is "behavioral modification" through "rewarding successive approximations." It is strategically correct for us to play ball positively -- let the other side put themselves in the wrong (as Abba Eban said, they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity). As for the current difference between Obama and Netanyahu on the settlements, it is within the realm of the negotiable. The more important point was to red-line unbridled settlement expansion as unacceptable, and even Netanyahu's remarks concede this position.
David Stolow at 15:09 on 15 June
To agree with you I would have to believe that Bibi is actually prepared to negotiate and stop some settlement activity as a show of good faith. I fear that neither is the case. Olmert and Barak spent the last 4 years talking about how they are going to get out of settlements that even Israel has labeled "illegal." Instead they kept expanding settlements. Why Bib would try to do less is a mystery. In sum, Obama speaks the truth and Bibi, as they said on the campaign posters, lies.
Lori Lippitz at 15:24 on 15 June
It does seem that Bibi is motivated by visceral distrust of Arabs, and his base is driven by a similar mistrust, disgust, hatred or just cynicism. This is a tough guy for Obama to cut a deal with unless he gets the whole Congress to make a paradigm shift and make support of Israel more conditional. Az och un vey.
Lenny Levin at 10:31 on 16 June
In diplomacy, it matters more what words you say than what mental reservations you have about them. The words commit. Yes, and actions commit too. Meanwhile, events in Iran make the Israel-Palestinian impasse look like a tempest in a teapot.
David Stolow at 13:20 on 16 June
Maybe in the polite diplomacy of the French about 150 years ago. But in the Middle East words are merely a cover for what you are really thinking and doing. And what Israel is doing is to continue to expand the settlements while occassionally taking their foot off the oxygen hose of West Bank businesses provided that the owners act like "our kind of Arabs."
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