T. Belman. Netanyahu will have to decide to take his chances on Bennett not succeeding, in which event we will be into a fifth election (polls say no change) or to resign and let the right wing form a government under a different leader.
I think Bennett’s chances are pretty good. He needs a religious party or an Arab party to form a government.
Yamina leader says ‘change bloc’ government will not be any more left-wing than coalitions Netanyahu set up with Barak, Livni; concedes it will not annex West Bank areas
23 April 2021, 9:36 pm
Yamina party leader Naftali Bennett at a press conference in the Knesset, in Jerusalem on April 21, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Yamina leader Naftali Bennett said Friday that he was involved in intensive efforts and countless meetings to set up a national unity government, and had been working on this since coming to the conclusion that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has no intention” of making the necessary compromises to establish a right-wing government. He said he was by no means certain that the efforts would actually bear fruit.
Bennett, who has repeatedly said he prefers a right-wing government led by Netanyahu, wrote in a Facebook post that he was focusing his efforts on setting up a government with the so-called “change bloc” of parties that oppose Netanyahu.
Netanyahu has repeatedly tried to tarnish the diverse group of parties as radical leftists, but Bennett wrote that any government that would be established would be no further left than previous Netanyahu governments.
“A national unity government won’t fulfill all my dreams, but it won’t be less right-wing than governments Netanayhu formed with Ehud Barak, Tzipi Livni or Avi Nissenkorn,” he wrote.
However, he conceded that a unity government would not achieve his long-held goals of annexing parts of the West Bank or carrying out judicial reforms. “But it won’t give up land either,” he said.
Bennett said it was still not clear if they would manage to forge a government that would include the right-wing Yamina, New Hope and Yisrael Beytenu, the centrist Yesh Atid and Blue and White, and the left-wing Labor and Meretz. It would also need outside support from at least one Arab party or one of the ultra-Orthodox parties.
Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman (L) talks with then-Blue and White No. 2 Yair Lapid in the cafeteria of the Knesset on October 3, 2019. (Raoul Wootliff/Times of Israel)
Bennett said he would only agree to such a government if he received assurances and veto power over key issues and specific ministries. But he said there were enough common areas for such a government to work on.
Channel 12 news reported Friday that the parties were at an advanced stage of agreeing on the foundations of the government, including dividing up key portfolios.
The report said Bennett would be prime minister, Lapid foreign minister, Liberman would get finance and Sa’ar would be defense minister, but stressed that discussions were not final.
Channel 13, meanwhile reported that Blue and White’s Benny Gantz would retain the defense ministry and Sa’ar would take the justice portfolio.
Bennett, in his post, also accused Netanyahu of being unwilling to make key concessions to set up a preferred right-wing government.
He said Netanyahu could have pressured far-right leader Bezalel Smotrich to accept a government based on the outside support of the Islamist Ra’am party, though he conceded that option was “unpalatable.”
He also said if a right-wing government was so important to Netanyahu he could step aside and let someone else on the right or in Likud form the government, which would bring in Likud-breakaway Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope party.
Channel 13 reported that there were actually discussions within Netanyahu’s inner circle to propose that Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz could serve as prime minister for 12-18 months, with Netanyahu serving as an alternate prime minister.
The report said Steinitz was considered statesmanlike and not a threat to other Likud leaders.
But Bennett said Netanyahu was bent on taking Israel to “a 5th, 6th and 7th election.”
Likud responded to Bennett by again trying to paint the “change bloc” as left wing.
“A coalition built on 50 seats made up of the left, far-left and the Joint List is not a national unity government, but a left-wing government with a very small right-wing fig leaf.”
It said if Bennett really wanted a right-wing government he would spend his time working to convince Sa’ar to join or support Netanyahu’s call for a new election to directly elect the prime minister.
Netanyahu’s long-shot bid to hold direct elections for prime minister without a fresh vote for parliament currently lacks sufficient support and would first require amending one of Israel’s quasi-constitutional Basic Laws — necessitating the very parliamentary majority eluding Netanyahu. It would also likely face a formidable legal challenge in the High Court of Justice, as it would entail sweeping legislative reforms by a caretaker government.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a press conference at the Knesset, in Jerusalem on April 21, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
If Netanyahu fails to form a government by May 4, President Reuven Rivlin will need to either task a second candidate with doing so or send the mandate back to the Knesset to directly choose a lawmaker to do the job.
Should neither bloc establish a government, Israel would head to what would be its fifth election within three years.
The reports on agreements being reached in the “change bloc” come a day after reports that they have reached understandings on numerous issues, including on religion and state.
Bennett and Lapid, along with Liberman’s right-wing secularist Yisrael Beytenu party, agreed that a government they form should adopt the position of the liberal Orthodox Tzohar rabbinic group on religious matters, such as allowing municipal rabbis to perform conversions and ending the state rabbinate’s monopoly on kosher certification, according to Channel 12.
The unsourced report noted the effort to reach an agreement on religious issues could diffuse divides between the disparate factions that would make up the coalition, ranging from the right-wing Yamina to the left-wing Meretz.
Such understandings would likely face fierce opposition from the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties, key members of Netanyahu’s anti-religious bloc.
A separate television report Thursday said Liberman was insisting that the Haredi factions not be able to join the new government for 18 months, though other party leaders in the anti-Netanyahu bloc were seeking to convince him to drop the demand.
If Shas and United Torah Judaism were to join, Channel 13 news quoted a source in the “change bloc” saying this would happen at the formation of the coalition. The network said that if they do in fact team up with Netanyahu’s rivals, the ultra-Orthodox parties will be given ministerial posts designated for the bloc’s right-wing factions.
Responding to the report, Yamina said Bennett would “not accept a boycott of the ultra-Orthodox during the formation of the government.”
“Bennett will not boycott the ultra-Orthodox or their representatives, nor any group in Israel. Any government in which we participate will take care of all Israeli citizens, and will not negatively label any population group,” a spokesperson for the party said Friday.
Liberman was previously a senior governing partner of Netanyahu’s, but the two fell out after the April 2019 elections over Yisrael Beytenu stipulating their joining a coalition would be on conditions rejected by the ultra-Orthodox — helping trigger Israel’s two-year-long political impasse.
Haredi parties have long reviled opposition leader Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid party, which has touted secularist policies and opposed ongoing ultra-Orthodox control on many levers of power. However, UTJ leader MK Moshe Gafni recently signaled his party may be less resolutely opposed to Lapid than before with Netanyahu lacking any clear path to reaching a ruling majority following the March 23 elections, the fourth in two years.
@ Edgar G.:
He did mentioned Marranos as his ancestors but I don’t remember where it was.
I think it was when he wrote about his childhood but I saw it a few years ago, so I don’t really remember.
@ Reader:
Thank you. Very interesting. I’ve read a lot of Gil-White but haven’t seen him lately. With a first name like his I always thought he must be a descendant of the Marranos.
I think he’s an athropologit and I know he has a PhD. in something. Always very interesting.
Thanks again.
@ Edgar G.:
Whatever. Be happy.
Here is a very interesting article – old (from the times of Obama administration) but relevant, I think:
http://www.hirhome.com/iraniraq/plo-iran2.htm
@ Reader:
Forgive me dear lad. I really do not know what you’re talking about. I think I’ve “switched off” on you. at least for now…….. Perhaps you have “Bidenosis”…. (The remedy, I’m told, is to hold your breath for 25 minutes). That’s the effect; the actual name of the ailment is “Bidenosis”.
In your parlamce that would be a “fact. But your “facts’ are like the old song “I’m forever Blowing Bubbles”, it made a gretd Dixieland tune.
@ Edgar G.:
They are NOT factual lines, they are ASSUMPTIONS.
And you know what the word ASSUME stands for, don’t you?
BTW, once there is a “Palestinian” state, Israel will not be able to control all of Judea and Samaria.
One state controlling another state with its military is correctly called “occupation”, e.g., like Germany “controlling” France with its military in WW II.
And once there is a war, which there will be, to defeat a state and take its territory is quite different from retaking no-man’s land from an enemy.
The two-state solution may occur under anyone’s watch but I think it is more likely under Netanyahu’s because he is under indictment (Sharon was blackmailed with the possibility of a similar lawsuit before the disengagement).
I mean, who is going to continue suing for corruption a Nobel Prize laureate who finally “put an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, etc.”?
@ Bear Klein:
Very nicely put, Bear. Really, well done.
@ Reader:
They armed tham with pistols and light equipment to keep local order. Nothing else . I recall it. Part of the usual boloney. I don’t know what you make such a tzimmis of every little “greps”…(burp)
Don’t forget “Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition”. Also…”Look Pleasant, But Keep Your Powder Dry”
@ Bear Klein:
Bravo…EXACTLY. READER- TAKE NOTE and absorb——if you can. Bear had put all our/ YOUR arguments in a few factual lines. You never accept mine, but maybe you will his..
@ Edgar G.:
Here are several popular sayings:
1) “Hope for the best and expect the worst”
2) “Never say never”
3) “Promise everything and get out of it later”
#3, in particular, pertains to BK’s:
The “demilitarized” and “to forgo the right of return” are the really funny ones, considering that Israel’s “best ally”, the US started arming the “Palestinian police” such a long time ago that it fades from memory, and who will prevent them from family reunification and accepting hordes of tourists who have no intention of leaving.
Plus, there will be a real possibility of the new state becoming part of Jordan PDQ.
And, of course, Ariel Sharon, the hero of Israel and the biggest proponent and builder of the Jewish settlements, could never even think about the disengagement from Gaza!
Bibi agree to a Pal entity (something less than a state). If they:
agree to be demilitarized,
agree to the IDF controlling all of Judea/Samaria,
agree to Jerusalem being Israeli,
agree to forgo right of return,
agree to recognize that Israel is the Jewish State.
If they agreed to all of the above then Israel would negotiate the parameters of the borders.
Since the Pals will never would agree to this and have rejected it explicitly, no two state or two entity solution will occur under the watch of Netanyahu.
So anyone confused or not clear about this simply does not understand the reality of the situation and Netanyahu, nor what he has said in the past in including his Bar Illan speech.
@ Reader:
Don’t be sorry…pleyuse…It doesn’t become you..
Let me try to enlighten you once again. (“One More Chance” a beautiful melody)
i understand ALL that you’ve said and are saying above. But I don’t understand your confused mental processes which make “bricks wirhout straw” I know ALL about your “hypothetical” which you referred to as “what if”
You have a very short, convenient memory which forgets or didn’t assimilate, that I pinpointed your “what if” and, specifically-as now- used inverted commas. You range so far afield for your “what ifs” that you disappear out of sight of my long range binoculars.
Let me take them from #1 (Oh by the way, no need to try to subtly -clumsy as it was- impute failng understanding to me-perhaps from decrepitude- I do not have it, and don’t expect to.
1) Happy you accept that Netanyahu can conjure up “incredible manoeuvring”
2) Netanyahu would never sign off on a “palestinian state” under any circumstances. You postulate him doing do within a couple of months when he has been rejecting it by his actions for so ,many years..He has powerful allies enough to support him. Besides, it would take not only the Knesset, which would,not ever do such a dastardly deed, but also the various Cabinets and a host of other bureaucratic monsters.
3) The PA would neevr accept 70%. Their record of rejection of offers of up to 98% plus land exchange is too deepy embedded in their psyche. And another point. As soon as “palestine” become a “functioning” state, it will be expected to behave like one. That’s an impossibility for generations of assassins and kleptocrats. It would usher in a period of utter chaos with monstrous infighting over any spoils and succesions etc. It would result in separate antagonistic “shiekdoms”… Not a chance.
4) You are mistaken again here. I do not admire him, After all, he is a politician, and other than D’Israeli and Dona Gracia Nasi, my political horizon for admiration is right under my nose.. I highly respect him as a brilliant strategist and tactician, with endless patience to suffer through Israeli backbiting, undermining,backstabbing, and outright contiouous hostility from all sides.
5) I see there is NO “5”…….. why not…. you have so much to say….. The only confusion READER, between us is the confusion constantly whirling, bubbling, agitating, inside yuor head. When it comes to a boil, as it so often does, OUT pops another “hypothetical” piece of rubbish, twisted, confused, and highly toxic towards whoever you’ve set your sights against.
And that seems to be everybody….
Excluding thee and me…and I’m not sure about thee…Oh sorry, I was thinking of another scenario.
@ Edgar G.:
I will try to explain to you what I meant because you didn’t seem to get it.
I was talking about a hypothetical (WHAT IF) situation:
1) Netanyahu succeeds with his incredible maneuvering and remains prime minister;
2) Netanyahu signs off on the two-state solution this summer (presumably at a conference the US and the EU want to set up);
3) the “Palestinian” state comes into being on 70% of Judea and Samaria with Israel getting the 30% non-contiguous (presumably, as per the original Netanyahu plan) with its Green Line borders;
4) after all that, you, Edgar, will still continue to admire him and come up with the same reasons and excuses for your admiration of him as before (I listed a few of them).
In other words, I think that you will continue to admire him no matter what he does.
This was it.
I am sorry I wrote it all in one long sentence in my previous post which must have been confusing to you.
@ peloni1986:
I feel bad about Bennett talking with Ra’am but Netanyahu was the first one to start courting them after the last elections.
They shouldn’t have allowed the parties that don’t recognize the State to exist in the first place but since they did, they have to deal with them.
This is a headline from today in Arutz Sheva. In the article it is claimed that “significant progress” has been made by Bennett in his dovetail moves to the Leftist camp. Does stupidity just concentrate in the realm of the power elite? Do they have no concept of what they do while elevating the stature of the Muslim Brotherhood? Is their unwise desperation to unseat a leader so necessary for the good of the state that they will ally with their mortal enemies? Or is it just to find a path to fill their ambitions? One or all of these questions must be answered in the affirmative and the consequence diminishes both them and the state. Lives will be the payment for this power dongle placed at the feet of such a man as this. It is intolerably beyond belief that they do this – any of them, but especially those who would claim the high mantle of being the only adult in the room, as the self-proscribed enlightened candidate, Bennett, has recently so characterized himself. His recent actions undermine much of his good reputation built over the years, and in this most recent step, he seems to gain a footing on the pinnacle of these ill-advised actions. Though it may place the position of power within his reach, his ambitious actions in these moves have undermined the security of the state and its consequence will be repaid with the lives and sufferings by those he would lead, as it always does. A great misfortune.
@ Reader:
We got sovereignty in the whole of YESH. At least would after 4 years, because the Arabs refused the whole deal entirely. So perhaps that that allowed us to extend Israeli Law over the whole J&.S right away.. I don’t know what the legalities of this are.
Most likely Mandelblit and/or the SC would interfere.
@ peloni1986:
Yes that wa quite an endorsement wasn’t it??. I could feel the truth coming through very strongly. He showed his political colours quite plainly , opposing all the LIKUD policies and Right Wing in general. Yes, a very strong backing.
@ Reader:
Reader you never cease to amaze me. You have it ALL worked out to fraction. And then all you can do is “sigh”….
One thing more you can do…when you exhale a sigh, stop right there, do NOT inhale for 15 minutes…..maybe with you vast mind reading capabilities, make it 25 minutes. Then….be my guest.
You really do talk more nonsense than all posters on this site put together. I am just sorry, so sorry. But ……READER…If you DID live in Israel you’d be advertising it loudly in every post. You’d be talking about “my dear friends Benjamin Netanyahu and Sara:…” with every second breath.
You see, you can answer everything,including what Netanyahu thinks, even when no learder in the world can do it. You know what I think…before I even think it..
You remind me very much of a long ago cricket friend. .. His name was Cecil, a confirmed batchelor aged about 40. Very plain looking. Hated Catholics. Never drank alcohol..Was a clerk 20+ years in same job etc.. His landlady moved in with a married daughter. Cecil decided to get married. Somehow he made contact with a really nice girl, intelligent, and attractive. She came all the way from Australia to see him, a highly qualified head surgery nurse. Aged 31. He took her out, and had no idea how to treat her. Asked me to entetain her and give him my opinion.
They had a dispute. Cecil never shaved the hairs high on his cheekbones, which grew quite long-like a walrus. . She asked him politely to shave them.. He wasn’t going to be”bossed” by any female. During our evening out, became far more interested in me than in Cecil. I explained my Jewishness and conversion problems etc. We had a wonderful evening which ended about 4 a.m. I told Cecil to grab her quick. He didn’t.
Well Reader, you remind me of HIM.
She shortly after went back to Australia. Cecil moved into his Church run apartment block, full of cubbyholes for single men. He came to work for us later.
Reader I give up…you win. !!
@ Reader:
Reader you never cease to amaze me. You have it ALL worked out to fraction. And then all you can do is “sigh”….
One thing more you can do…when you exhale a sigh, stop right there, do NOT inhale for 15 minutes…..maybe with you vast mind reading capabilities, make it 25 minutes. Then….be my guest.
You really do talk more nonsense than all posters on this site put together. I am just sorry, so sorry. But ……READER…If you DID live in Israel you’d be advertising it loudly in every post. You’d be talking about “my dear friends Benjamin Netanyahu and Sara:…” with every second breath.
You see, you can answer everything,including what Netanyahu thinks, even when no learder in the world can do it. You know what I think…before I even think it..
You remind me very much of a long ago cricket friend. .. His name was Cecil, a confirmed batchelor aged about 40. Very plain looking. Hated Catholics. Never drank alcohol..Was a clerk 20+ years in same job etc.. His landlady moved in with a married daughter. Cecil decided to get married. Somehow he made contact with a really nice girl, intelligent, and attractive. She came all the way from Australis to see him, a highly qualified head surgery nurse. Aged 31. He took her out, and had no idea how to treat her. Asked me to entetain her and give him my opinion.
They had a dispute. Cecil never shaved the hairs high on his cheekbones, which grew quite long-like a walrus. . She asked him politely to shave them.. He wasn’t going to be”bossed” by any female. During our evening out, became far more interested in me than in Cecil. I explained my Jewishness and conversion problems etc. We had a wonderful evening which ended about 4 a.m. I told Cecil to grab her quick. He didn’t.
Well Reader, you remind me of HIM.
She shortly after went back to Australia. Cecil moved into his Church run apartment block, full of cubbyholes for single men. He came to work for us later.
Reader I give up…you win. !!
@ Edgar G.:
I am sure that if he stays afloat and the two-state solution comes to pass this summer (God forbid) even with his involvement, consent, and signature, you will still be arguing that it was the best he could do, that this Palestinian state is not a state but a “statelet” of no significance which will remain “demilitarized” and we are getting ironclad security guaranties from our “best ally” the United States and “the world community”, and, after all, we got sovereignty on the whole 30% of Judea and Samaria; that Netanyahu saved the country from even worse troublethat could ensue without the two-state solution, that he should be admired for his incredible political maneuvering that helped him outdo all his “enemies” and remain prime minister, that the pressure on him was enormous, etc., etc., and so forth.
SIGH.
@ Edgar G.:
Wow…A more full throated endorsement, I have yet to see of Netanyahu. Even his colleagues are not as thoroughly supportive and specifically endorsing of Netanyahu’s leadership as Halbertal was in this interview. I watched the entire 5min. interview by a Leftist and agreed with every word he spoke, except that he felt Netanyahu was the “best leader since Ben Gurion”, but then he immediately accepted that Netanyahu was possibly better, so I guess that makes it 100%. Very encouraging to find a man on the other side of the isle who recognizes the benefit of having such a leader during the “constellation” of events we face currently. Good find Edgar. I had missed this. Very reasonable leftest, though. Not sure if you can find two like that to rub together to start a spark. It is encouraging that he recognizes that some things are more important than the routine political prattle of the day. But, unfortunately, the electorate was less perceptive than this pragmatic liberal, as were the ballot stuffers.
@ Reader:
READER-You beat me. You are ALWAYS right, and I am wrong. You can immediately think up the most twisted excuses for pseudo-rationality that I’ve EVER come across, As I’ve said, you are incorrigible….I should have seen your surpassing merit “long ago…and far away”- (I think Crosby made the best recording, it was a top hit.) .
I merely repeated what I’d seen Halbertal say in print, and I have NO doubt of it’s absolute veracity. He is worried about the very great dangers facing us, and says so.. That even if he is against him politically , we nedd him very badly. His words.
Stop with the reverse “engineering”… You already have me thinking of that wonderful song..”After You’ve Gone”… ( met thed composer of that evergreen top hit,Turner Layton, a wonderful man, who is forgotten about now-except by old geezers like me)
READER- Netanyahu is a strong Zionist Israeli defender, and has done wonderful things for us, without giving more than an inch….maybe not even that. You completely miss the big picture, and it’s incomprehensble to me that you should hate the man so much.
Do you live in Israel or not. I suspect you don’t. Most aggressive critics live safely abroad, in their comfy little coccoons. It takes a staunch Jew to be a strong supporter of Israel and it’s brilliant defender. There are many on this site. Join us.@ Reader:
It’s not the issue which is funny, it’s YOUR immediate response to every point I made, no matter how “corrugated” and ridiculous you make it.
THAT’S what’s funny ( I mean “ha-ha”) I’ll be “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes”… pretty soon.
DO YOU LIVE IN ISRAEL…..????????????????**((**&& !!
@ Edgar G.:
Has it occurred to you that he wants Netanyahu PRECISELY because he thinks that Netanyahu is the one who will best help him achieve his dream of the two-state solution, etc.
I am right again! Didn’t mean to brag but couldn’t withstand the temptation.
Hell, I sure hope it won’t.
OK, Edgar, I am done with the topic.
@ Edgar G.:
You mean not within the Green Line?
Only on 70% of Judea and Samaria?
Oh boy, does it make me feel better [sarcasm].
I have no ability to bring Netanyahu down, don’t worry.
If you mean the Hareidi parties, don’t count on them to be Zionist – they will sell themselves to the highest bidder even if that bidder is the Muslim Brotherhood.
I am ready to stop this, too, but I don’t find this issue funny in any way, shape, or form.
@ <a href="#comment-63356000236075" title="Go to comment of this
:
https://www.haaretz.com/1.5064235
Netanyahu Backs Demilitarized Palestinian State [emphasis and comments are mine throughout]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on Palestinian leaders to restart Middle East peace negotiations without preconditions, in a highly anticipated foreign policy address at Bar Ilan University.
(Click here for the full text of Netanyahu’s speech.)
“I call on you, our Palestinian neighbors, and to the leadership of the Palestinian Authority: Let us begin peace negotiations immediately, without preconditions,” he said. “Israel is committed to international agreements and expects all the other parties to fulfill their obligations as well.”
In an apparent reversal of Israeli policy, Netanyahu also declared that he was prepared to see the creation of a Palestinian state, so long as the international community can guarantee that it not have any military capabilities. [One could die laughing at that one the only thing the “international community” can guarantee is the destruction of Israel (God forbid)]
In highly anticipated policy speech, PM calls for peace talks, says Israel won’t build new settlements.
“Israel cannot agree to a Palestinian state unless it gets guarantees it is demilitarized,” Netanyahu said. He also said that Jerusalem must remain the unified capital of Israel.
The address at Bar Ilan came in the wake of the Obama administration’s insistence that Israel impose a complete freeze on West Bank settlement construction and recognize the two-state solution.
During the speech, Netanyahu vowed that Israel would not build any new settlements and would refrain from expanding existing Israeli communities in the West Bank. Still, he said the government must be allowed to accommodate natural growth in these settlements.
Netanyahu has until now been adamant that a settlement freeze is unfeasible and that he would concentrate on strengthening the Palestinian economy, rather than agreeing to their statehood.
The prime minister said he was prepared to meet with the leaders of neighboring Arab countries at any time, to promote regional peace and to gain their contribution to the Palestinian economy.
Netanyahu reiterated that Israel has no desire to control the Palestinian people, and declared that both nations should be able to live side by side in peace.
“We want both Israeli and Palestinian children to live without war,” Netanyahu said, but added: “We must ask ourselves – why has peace not yet arrived after 60 years?”
Israel would not accept any situation in which it was forced to exist beside a terrorist state. Every withdrawal from settlement territories would contribute to such terror, said Netanyahu.
The prime minister also said that Palestinians must accept Israel as a Jewish state, and cited the root of the regional conflict to “even moderate” Palestinian elements’ refusal to do so.
“When Palestinians are ready to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, we will be ready for a true final settlement,” the prime minister said.
He emphasized that the Jewish people have been linked to the land of Israel for over 3,000 years and ruled out the option of granting Palestinians refugees the right to settle within Israeli borders.
Netanyahu said that Israel would not negotiate with terrorist who wish to destroy it, and said that Palestinians must choose between path of peace and Hamas.
The prime minister opened his address by saying that he had formed his new government earlier this year with three major challenges facing Israel: the economic crisis, the Iranian threat, and the Middle East peace process.
He stressed that the greatest threat to the world today was the link between Islamist extremism and nuclear weapons.
Netanyahu, who until now had not endorsed U.S. President Barack Obama’s goal of Palestinian statehood, used this policy speech as an opportunity to reverse course and try to narrow a rare rift between Israel and its closest ally.
The prime minister met with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and President Shimon Peres over the weekend for consultations about his speech.
Peres and Barak reportedly pressed Netanyahu to announce in the speech his acceptance of the road map and willingness to recognize a Palestinian state with security limitations.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, himself at loggerheads with Hamas, has said talks with Israel cannot resume until Netanyahu halts settlement and accepts a two-state solution.
@ Reader:
Yes, I’m sure Netanyahu is open for the Arabs to have their own State….but NOT IN ISRAEL. You just have no understanding of almost anything to do with Netanyahu. You are so determined to bring him down. Do you live in Israel…if you do, then join Sa’ars “Party” before it fades away completely.
The main point is that…frall the talk, and talks about talks, there is NO Arab state in Israel. And if G-D Forbid it really came to the crunch, the LIKUD would NOT allow it. They are ZIONISTS..as are many Lefties and Haredim.
Let’s stop this useless conversation. My sense fo humour has had enough thank you.
@ Reader:
Thank you for the rare (from you) compliment. I haven’t watched TV since about 1970, when the Ed Sullivan show ended……except for.boxing. ANd I even stopped that and concentrated completely on reading. When I moved, I gave it to my next door neighbour. I just knew about “Get Smart” because it was also on around that time. I watched it partly, one time. I don’t like buffoonry….
Take note. …Reader.
@ Edgar G.:
I’ll tell you a secret – wise and smart people do not watch TV especially to learn how to be wise and smart because the result will likely be the opposite due to the nature and content of the medium.
@ Edgar G.:
Do you even read what people post?
And his OFFICIAL letter to Mahmoud Abbas confirming
is also just talk?
What is he supposed to do to convince you that he means it?
Carve it in stone?
Reader Said:
Talk is just talk. Israel/PA “talks” began many years ago, still no result except negative. No talks for past several years at all. This is due to Netanyahu “adroitly”
(good choice of word here) manoeuvring Abbas into refusing…again….
Netanyahu and Trump are very close personal friends, apart from politica. They must also have discussed politics a lot and it is believed that Netanyahu has a strong influence on him. So Trump is willing to “talk” to anyone, even to North Korea, the most xenophobic dictatorship on earth. They met 3 times, and results were about to occur when somethign lse intervened. They are only on the back-burner”.
So READER…..Get Wise…Get Smart. (TV Show)
Did anyone see the news today that Dov Halbertal, a prominent Haredi VERY leftist journalist, who said he really wants a “Palestinian” State, and other Leftist goodies, supports the need for Netanyahu to be the PM in this crucial time, that we can’t do without him etc.
Surprising, but I hope it has a ripple effect.
@ Edgar G.:
THIS IS THE PROBLEM!!!
If the prime minister of Israel is willing to talk (and he DID say that he agrees with the idea) about the unthinkable, then it is no longer unthinkable.
By his “adroit impressions” he is making it possible.
BTW, I never talk about things I know nothing about, and I don’t idolize politicians or hold personal grudges against them because I think to do this is stupid.
Anyway, I am tired of your insults and your criticizing the thoughts and intentions that were never mine to start with.
Maybe your time would be better spent checking facts and actual history than blindly admiring Netanyahu.
As far as his father being a staunch Zionst is concerned (Bentzion Netanyahu died on the 30th of April, 2012), this is what happened within a month after his father died:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Netanyahu
Maybe being a staunch Zionist is not hereditary.
@ Reader:
That’s sheer nonsense Reader. Netanyahu would never allow a “Palestinian” State. If he were inclined to it would have happened long ago, when he was under such enormous pressure to do so. And, as I have a little earlier, pointed out, there are Cabinet decisions about such matters. No Likud Cabinet would ever agree anyway. He is a strong Zionist I tell you. His father was a major Zionist figure as was the father of his wife Sara. Both prominent writers and educators also.
You should notice that as of today there is NO “Palestinian” State, and Netabyahu has very adroitly given the impression that he is willing to talk about one. Maybe he is but talk is only talk, not action. It’s all part of his tactics for getting some pressure away from Israel.
You don’t seem to understand…For your own reasons you detest Netanyahu. Yet only he stands strong against Israel’s adversaries whilst making friends who were always bitter enemies before. The Abraham Accords, which he had a very big part in, has caused a flood of countries who wish to have embassies and consulates in Israel.
@ Edgar G.:
Reader-You’re an incorrigible pessimist, and contrarian.. You also isist that unproven, specifically-invented-for one-man-in-the-whole-world- charges as “facts”…..Tsk Tsk…!!
@ peloni1986:
It is not my conclusion, it’s a fact.
Some issues must be non-negotiable and unmentionable by an Israeli prime minister.
The two-state solution is the FINAL solution for Israel and he considers it an option even though he knows that Israel will be indefensible if this option materializes (he said so himself).
I am sure he is not the only one who finds this idea acceptable but he is the one who is most likely to implement it (as Disengagement II – they will get a marketing firm to come up with a beautiful name for it) the way things look right now.
Let us see what happens, we can’t change anything anyway.
@ Edgar G.:
I hope that this is true. So much politics is bound into these political theater, Soviet-like show trials. Many people hold hopelessly unreasonable opinions that are based on other than any factual basis – i.e. political ideology – so only some facts are true. Its all very Orwellian. Cicero believed that the law was what identified men from beasts. He would be greatly distressed to see the state of legal processes in the democracies of today….US, England, France, Israel,…Legal lawlessness is building both near and far. It is quite disturbing to see.
@ Reader:
If Netanyahu was going to be manipulated into ceding his legacy for a repeal of his pending sentence, I think he would have retired and accepted the offer of “dropped charges” in exchange for his retirement. It is unrealistic to accept that he will ballast off his legacy to offset these ice-cream, cigar bogus poppycock. Should he accomplish no more, his legacy is quite significant. I can accept that you believe he might be a dye-in-the-wool Peacenik, but, for myself, I see this as quite dubious.
Also,
If this is true of these manufactured, transparently false charges that were accepted as criminality for Netanyahu alone in all the world, what politician would be safe. Charge them with sneezing and force a resignation. I believe that this would be a very unwise strategy. It would entitle these unelected black-robed villains sitting on their high benches to continue, indefinitely, to carry on with the tyranny that they presently hold over the state while conducting kangaroo-court dramas against the state’s democratically elected choice of leadership. Furthermore, it would act to embolden the police to act as a brute-force squad to maintain their choice of leadership by pursuing additional fabricated evidence of fabricated charges. It would be unsustainable.
As far as a Palestinian state, like many things in our future, much depends on the US and how they are dealt with by the coming(someday) PM – trust in skill or chance, we will see. But as things appear currently, another ice age may come first.
@ Reader:
Netanyahu is a politician. He is not a saint or a paragon of virtue. Neither he nor Bennett nor the many PM wannabees are more than this and many of them, I would propose are a great deal less. All politicians will attempt to make themselves ‘look good no matter what [they] do”. Some perform poorly at this(I am thinking of Rabin, Barak, Olmert, Livni – you have to have at least one positive thing to boast about) while some do not. I take it from your many blogs that you are of an opinion that Netanyahu has accomplished little to nothing, forgive me if this is untrue but this is what I have garnered of your many thoughts on this. But if that is accurate, then no man may claim to change or control anything and the PM doesn’t matter. I would challenge you to make Abbass PM and lets see how life changes. Clearly, the PM has great significance in making the changes that take place and don’t take place under him, as does Pres. of US and PM of Britian…. For all the issues that Netanyahu has held back on resolving – and there are some significant issues there which I would chastise him for – none of them can, on whole, be considered to be so great that they offset his many accomplishments or the perilous storm that we are only entering now. Do you believe Netanyahu and his abilities to thread the needle while managing the ship of state, as it were, while the whole world trembles with the dangers that approach Israel? Clearly, many in Israel would rather trust to chance rather than maintain Netanyahu’s helmsman-ship. With an accomplished leader such as Netanyahu, I would suggest that this is poorly judged, but the electorate and the ballot stuffers have had their say.
Regarding the economy, I believe, if you do the research you suggest, you will find that Israelis have not only improved their lifestyles and incomes alone, but their international standing as well, i.e., Israelis lives have improve at a much greater pace than most nations. And this was Netanyahu’s doing when he restructured the economy. I don’t think these facts would be easily challenged.
On his stand regarding the two state solution, I do not believe your conclusions about his true beliefs, but this is a task for each of us to weigh his merit as we best understand it to be. He has given words to support the two state solution, this is true. But again, he did not make those statements in a vacuum. Context is significant here again, and I would argue, to countenance against your conclusions. Netanyahu has been dragged to the alter of public support for the Two State Solution on every occasion that he has done so. I do not believe he trusts the Arabs, I do not believe he even likes the Arabs. But reasonable people will disagree, and I see that you do.
@ Reader:
Hello Groucho….!!
@ Edgar G.:
Another point to consider. In today’s Arutz 7 the headline was :”Security Cabinet authorises Netanyahu and Gantz to approve a plan for a Gaza attack”.
It shouldbe clear now, that everything MUST go through authorised-by-law, channels. So all the nonsense about blaming Netanyahu for this-and-that, , and Gantz for that and this , and other Ministers for other things, is shown to be a fallacious blame. Min
Aprops of nothing, in a couple of Netanyahu’s “corruption” cases, the evidence has already been published , time and again, that whatever decision he’s being charged for, had nothing to do with him, but with the relevant Committees.
Which is why he always has been confident that he will be found innocent.
@ peloni1986:
Netanyahu’s problems are worse than that – he is under indictment and is facing possibly 10 years in jail if convicted.
He will do absolutely anything to avoid this and, as such, may be subject to blackmail – recall Sharon’s situation before the disengagement (BTW, Sharon’s fortune was almost twice as big as Netanyahu’s).
A man in a situation like this has no business occupying ANY government position whatsoever, and least of all, that of a Prime Minister..
If he manages to stay afloat, we’ll have a “Palestinian” state this year for sure.
With the others – it is possible but much less probable, I think.
@ peloni1986:
He also backs the two-state solution, this has been his conviction for years even though he protests that he doesn’t every now and then.
And he turned Israel with his wonderful economic reforms into a country run by the rich and for the rich.
If you check things very carefully (which is a pain because of all the details and the length of time), you’ll see that Netanyahu acts and speaks as a great leader and a patriot but ends up doing things that are quite different.
He is great at making himself look good no matter what he does.
@ Edgar G.:
Here is the info on Israel’s richest politicians:
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-with-his-50m-shekel-fortune-netanyahu-is-israel-s-fourth-richest-politician-1.6962858
The poor thing is only the 4th in the line-up, and it does say that he earned all of it in the several years he was a consultant and a lecturer.
He also invests his money in the US (instead of in his own country), especially in the US government securities (but this info is not from the above article).
It was his reform that permitted Israelis to transfer unlimited amounts of money abroad and to have foreign bank accounts (see Wikipedia).