I have often said that Bibi’s demand for security was to change the subject from our desire to keep the land. Not only was he giving away the land but he wasn’t looking after our security. Ted Belman
DEBKAfile: A cabinet crisis has been averted for now over the concessions urged on the prime minister by US Secretary of State John Kerry for the sake of a peace accord with the Palestinians. But by playing his cards too close to his vest, Netanyahu is exposing himself to more criticism and a loss of respect from within his own government.
Too often his words are countered or contradicted outright.
The Bennett episode roseout of the frustration of a member of the security cabinet which Netanyahu keeps in the dark over his solo performance.
But also today, Netanyahu was actually contradicted for insisting that the peace framework document that John Kerry is about to present to Israel and the Palestinian Authority is a US document, which represents America’s take on the points agreed and does not oblige Israel to accept its contents.
US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro stepped forward to deny this. Addressing a National Security Institute conference in Tel Aviv, the ambassador said that the framework agreement mostly incorporates ideas presented by the two sides (Israel and the Palestinians), with only a few inserts of American origin.
Ambassador Shapiro must be presumed to have been authorized by Secretary Kerry to publicly challenge Prime Minister Netanyahu – and not for the first time.
Since mid-December, DEBKAfile’s sources have disclosed elements of the framework proposal which conflict with Netanyahu’s public comments.
Without going into the rights or wrongs of the dust-up between the prime minister and Bennett, it is evident to DEBKAfile’s sources that Netanyahu has most probably been prevailed upon by Kerry to make fairly far-reaching concessions to the Palestinians – particularly on the scale of Israel’s withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem. This information he has not shared with his ministers and as it comes out, more ructions are to be expected.
In Jerusalem, for example, Netanyahu almost certainly agreed to cede to Palestinian rule the Arab-populated suburbs of Shuafat, Beit Hanina, the Shuafat refugee camp and the large village of Issawiya. This village, which is a notorious hotbed of terror ruled by the radical Palestinian Democratic Front, has sprawled up the slopes of Mount Scopus by unopposed wildcat construction.
So the Palestinians are now also laying claim to Mt. Scopus, which has been the seat of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem without interruption since its foundation in 1918.
Even under Israeli control, heavy military and police backup is needed for entering Issawiya, which is less than 10 minutes drive from Jerusalem downtown. An outbreak of violence was quelled with difficulty by Israel border police this Wednesday. Under Palestinian control, no one doubts that this village will be one of the first sources of rocket fire on Jerusalem when even Israeli security forces are unable to subdue its hate-filled inhabitants.
Strategically, too, giving up Issawiya would mean Israel is relinquishing control of the highway connecting Jerusalem to Maaleh Adumim, throwing in the towel of a struggle waged for years to maintain territorial contiguity between these two Israeli cities.
If Netanyahu’s standing within his cabinet is waning, it is because in the view of many politicians and circles outside politics his tactics in the conduct of negotiations with Kerry and the Palestinians does not bear muster by democratic standards – and above all in Israel itself – for the handling of issues of vital concern to the nation’s security and very future.
In the case challenged by Bennett, Netanyahu appears to have yielded substantially in private to his two negotiating partners and then, when criticized, pretended the concession was not for real but a tactical stratagem for showing up Palestinian intransigence and insincerity in pursuing peace diplomacy.
It was therefore up to critics to trust him and shut up, a demand that Naftali Bennett contemptuously spurned.
Netanyahu is creating a confusing world of double and triple mirrors. The respect he claims is slipping away from him and exposed him to the less than respectful contradiction by the US ambassador.
And when he protests time and time again that his foremost concern is national security, his words are often thrown back at him – as they were Wednesday by Military Intelligence Chief Maj. Gen Aviv Kochavi, who warned shortly after the US ambassador’s comments that “170,000 rockets and missiles are threatening Israel.”
This figure was bigger before Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza last year, he said, and diminished in the course of the Syrian war. “But the number will rise again,” Kochavi assured his listeners.
About Iran, Kochavi said: “The Iranian nuclear project goes on and a decision by the Iranian leader will determine whether one or more nuclear bombs are built. In Washington, Director of US National Intelligence James Clapper confirmed that Iran has no technological bars for producing a nuclear bomb. It depends solely on a political decision.
The prime minister has never tried to reconcile his avowed focus on security as his paramount concern while allowing Israel’s enemies to constantly build up the number of rockets aimed at Israel, or with Iran remaining with a single dilemma, reported repeatedly by DEBKAfile in the past year, of whether to build one nuke or an arsenal, without Israel lifting a finger to forestall this threat.
It is this disparity between word and deed that is costing Netanyahu national and personal respect at a time that he needs it most.
Salubrius Said:
A little over stated, don’t you think!!!!!!!
In my own view, the biggest threat to the Jewish people in their split in unity, both in Israel and the US. Vietnam Reddux.
@ AbbaGuutuu:
Good to know when sending songs!!!
Yes, I am an American.
Thanks for posting the song that is relevant to the comment you made.
@ AbbaGuutuu:
I am glad you enjoyed it, are you an American?
honeybee Said:
Well said!!! I like that song!
AbbaGuutuu Said:
Then you must examine your soul to be sure of your cause: http://youtu.be/N8i5NLyXZdc
A favorite song by a favorite singer!!!!!!!!
honeybee Said:
Thanks for your comments. According to Thesaurus, stiff-necked means, “tenaciously unwilling or marked by tenacious unwillingness to yield”. When you stand in truth for truth, it is the best quality to have. Such behavior could be extremely dangerous if a person won’t accept any correction or constructive suggestions when doing a wrong thing.
yamit82 Said:
I fully agree with the quoted statement. I donot question your strong love for Israel and the Jews. Don’t you think BB at least have the same level of love? As a PM, there are things he cannot share with the public prematurely. You may well know, how much he is hated by by some of those in the current US Administration because of his courageous and bold statement he made when he visited the White House. Knowing fully the hatred against any courageous and bold leaders of Israel like BB in some circles, shouldn’t individuals like you side with him at this point instead of inadvertently give comfort to those who hate BB (to weaken him) because of his strong stand for the interests of Israel and the Jews?
yamit82 Said:
What the difference?????????
@ AbbaGuutuu:
BB was not allowed to be PM to do what ever he pleases. If he wants support he must take us into his confidence and tell us where he is leading us. Then each of us will decide yes or no whether we can support him. I would fear and be more disappointed in a people who follow any leader blindly.
G-d does not want or need slaves but obedient servants. He has no need for more angels as he has enough of those as well. We are unique creations possessing freewill, even angels don’t have that.
@ williambilek:
Stiff-necked can also mean courageous!!!!!!!!
The biggest threat to Israel is not the PA, nor John Kerry. It’s Netanyahu, a man willing to exchange Israeli land and security for a Nobel Prize.Why not? Didn’t Arafat and Obama also receive Nobel prizes?
“Let us hope for the best, as Adonai is still on His throne and would keep the promises He made to Abraham, Issac and Jacob.”
I know those same words were spoken by occupants of one of the cattle cars on its way to Terrezin, when they refused my father’s advice to run with him when he found a hole in the floor of the car.
AbbaGuutuu Said:
We are a stiff-necked people,it’s in our DNA!!!!!!
My precious Jews friends, please stop fighting with each other!There is a great pressure against PM BB Netanyahu from without and within. This is a very critical time for Israel in this chaotic world we live in. Any sign of divisions among the Israeli’s would be exploited by those who have been relentlessly working to weaken BB/Israel. Knowing this fact, as much as possible, BB needs support in order to negotiate from a position of strength and win for his people.
It is easy to criticize some one in responsibility without having the details of what Secretary Kerry has proposed. Let us hope for the best, as Adonai is still on His throne and would keep the promises He made to Abraham, Issac and Jacob.
Bill Narvey Said:
Duh!!!
This report is not credible wherein it claims Netanyahu kept his cabinet in the dark as to his proposal that some Israelis communities would end up under Palestinian rule in a new Palestinian state, which Netanyahu later claimed, responding to Bennett’s criticism, was just a public relations ploy.
If however, Netanyahu really did not let his cabinet in on what he would be proposing to Kerry/Palestinians and why, that too would be incredible and leaves one to not only question Netanyahu’s credibility, but his common sense and worse still, his sanity.
Netanyahu talks much and does nothing.
If he really agreed to those concessions, he’ll face a hard sell in his own party. Dividing Jerusalem is a deal-breaker.
If this is the price for peace, I would prefer no peace to no Jerusalem! Period.