By Ted Belman
Israel Hayom reports, Netanyahu: Peace with Palestinians necessary to avoid binational state. That’s right. Bibi said that he wants to avoid a binational state and thus must give up land.
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“I am prepared to resume negotiations immediately. My interest is what’s good for Israel, and I have no desire to head toward a binational state, a situation I oppose. I’ve offered compromises in the past, compromises whose meaning is a relinquishing of land. For as long as it depends on me, we will ensure the Jewish and democratic character of Israel.”
The is the argument from the left and Bibi is repeating it. The right says that we can reject a two state solution without ending up with a binational state.
It gets worse. Bibi told a press conference;
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“There have been five prime ministers before me who offered proposals that the Palestinians have rejected. I am the sixth. The Palestinians and Mahmoud Abbas are not prepared to agree to even the most minimal of compromises,”
I shudder to think that he sees himself as one of the failed Prime Ministers who made an offer. But he does so while acknowledging that the PA is not prepared to compromise.
The only proper stance to take is also refusing to compromise.
Moshe Sharon in his brilliant A Short Guide for Those Obsessed with Peace he writes
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In Middle Eastern bazaar diplomacy, agreements are kept not because they are signed but because they are imposed. Besides, in the bazaar of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the two sides are not discussing the same merchandize. The Israelis wish to acquire peace based on the Arab-Muslim acceptance of Israel as a Jewish state. The objective of the Arabs is to annihilate the Jewish state, replace it with an Arab state, and get rid of the Jews.
To achieve their goal, the Arabs took to the battlefield and to the bazaar diplomacy. The most important rule in the bazaar is that if the vendor knows that you desire to purchase a certain piece of merchandize, he will raise its price. The merchandize in question is “peace” and the Arabs give the impression that they actually have this merchandize and inflate its price, when in truth they do not have it at all.
This is the wisdom of the bazaar, if you are clever enough you can sell nothing at a price. The Arabs sell words, they sign agreements, and they trade with vague promises, but are sure to receive generous down payments from eager buyers. In the bazaar only a foolish buyer pays for something he has never seen.
There is another rule in the market as well as across the negotiating table: the side that first presents his terms is bound to loose; the other side builds his next move using the open cards of his opponent as the starting point.
Bibi goes further,
Our prime ministers never seem to learn these simple rules.
Yamit, the details are in a two part op ed in Arutz Sheva, the outline in a piece published in Middle East and terrorism. I am the author of both. I am using my laptop just now, but if you can’t find them I will send the links to you from my desktop computer.
@ Wallace Brand:Yamit, It is lawful under International Law as established by the British Mandate for Palestine in 1920. That adopts the Balfour Declaration. It says that the declaration does not affect the relationship between the country of the Diaspora Jews and those Jews. The grant of political rights did not contemplate more than one Jewish state. It contemplated one Jewish state in all Palestine, but the Israeli government as representative of the Jews released its claim to TransJordan in return for Jordan’s release of its claim on CisJordan. Why do you want a lot of small states. Do you want the Pro Zionists to put all the leftist Post Modern Revisionists in their own little state? Sounds like a good idea. I do have the political rights granted to the Jews at San Remo that was a grant to all Jews; that gives me a right of return if I choose to exercise it. That law is on the books of the Israeli government. Many leftists complain about it because they don’t know the reason for it.
@ Wallace Brand:
Why only one? Why not two-three or more mini confederated states? I don’t know what you mean by Lawful Jewish State? What Law? whose Law?
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This is very biblical but then who should be included as being Jewish?
Solving this question another arises, that of dual loyalties. Should we entertain diaspora Jewish rights to Jews whose primary loyalties are to the countries of their residence?
Even if you could give up any political rights in the State of Israel,except in theory as long as you remain outside of the State you have no political rights, in fact no rights at all.
I believe every Jew has as his inheritance a right to a portion of the Land of Israel and there would be no major arguments or conflicts if the primary loyalty of every Jew were to other Jews.
Kol Yisrael arevim zeh b’zeh (All Jews are Responsible for Each Other) The Talmud (Shevuot 39a)
@ yamit82:I say there can be one lawful Jewish state West of the Jordan River. The choice is up to all the Jews, including those in the Diaspora who own the exclusive political rights, but I would give up my right and let the Israelis choose.
@ BlandOatmeal:
Good on you. You defended BB very Well.
@ Shy Guy:
Not from this group. Who says there has to be ONE JEWISH STATE?
Israel cannot counter Judea
I saw the video. What did she say. She looked like a firebrand.
yamit82 Said:
Some of them are pol-dancers. 🙂
@ Shy Guy:
I read that at the time. Maybe all of our Presstitutes, should have a similar wake-up experience ( epiphany ) as did Kalman?
One day, something has to give, most likely at the barrel of a gun, perhaps from that young girl:
Expulsion from Beit HaMachpela
And I won’t blame her. Not one bit.
comment to Blandoatmeal disappeared?
@ BlandOatmeal:
Using your method of BB apologetics; I assume you then after applying the same standards to Obama that he has prevented the country from far worse and deeper economic decline and that there seems to be a steady trend in recovery. He got us out of Iraq and is in the process of ending American involvement in Afghanistan. He is responsible for offing Ben Laden, and we didn’t lose any servicemen in Libya. For a large number of Americans: SS, Medicare and Medicaid is still intact, and long term unemployed have had their benefits extended etc. He got for the first time in American history a universal health care reform passed which is now a right for every citizen. There will never be a repeal of the law. They will tinker and alter and revise some aspects but universal coverage as an additional national right is a fact no matter how the SS rules.
Cut medical costs by streamling administrative overhead and fraud and save an estimated 50% of current medical costs without reducing any benefit.
We here and in France have a plastic card that does via computer everything thousands of administrative workers in the States perform. Basic medical insurance should never be tied or conditioned to the work place adding a major cost to the employer. That’s a form of slavery and socialism that the stupid conservatives are so fearful of. It’s regressive and job mobility restrictive. Every citizen should pay a fee even if it’s symbolic and assess the cost progressively just like income tax. I would call it a tax and adjust income taxes to be more inclusive and lower to help compensate for health care tax. Americans believe the myth that they have the best healthcare in the world but they don’t.
When — hopefully not if — Israel annexes Area C, which comprises some 72% of the Shomron and Yehuda territories liberated for the Jewish nation 45 years ago, it will mean acquiring an all but insignificant Arab population. Moreover, it will make it impossible for anyone to put together an independent and contiguous Arab state; which is precisely what Israel needs, any such Arab state west of the Jordan River would always be an enemy and a threat to Israel exactly as Gaza has become.
Besides, once land is annexed and settled with one’s own people, the succeeded population can always be transferred elsewhere. As Levi Eshkol once said, Shomron/Yehuda is the vital and long-sought dowry, and the Arab population is the accompanying but ugly bride. Once the dowry is properly banked, the ugly bride can be sent back to live with her father’s family.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
@ yamit82:
For the most part, Kalman gets it.
@ Shy Guy:
Leviskind was being not only kind by extremely generous.
In Hebrew, Kalman Leviskind calls Netanyahu the two-faced and two-bit pol that he is.
@ yamit82:
1. He has remained in office — longer than most of his predecessors
2. He has not forced Jews from their homes in massive expulsions, as darlings of the Nationalist camp such as Sharon and Begin did
3. He has not lost any wars in Lebanon or elsewhere, as Olmert did
4. He has stood up to the most anti-Israel US President in history, without ceding one sqare inch of Israeli territory
5. He has kept Israel in excellent economic circumstances — circumstances helped in no small way by his policies under Sharon as Finance Minister
6. He withstood a bid by the PLO to win UN recognition, and left the PA leadership in disarray
7. He received a standing ovation before the US Congress — something rather rare for a foreign leader
I’d say that Netanyahu has a better record than Livni, Olmert, Sharon, Barak, Peres, Rabin and Begin. He has done better with the economy than Shamir; and the jury is still out (because of the uncertainty over Iran) whether or not he will top Golda Meir in defending Israel. Seeing that Allon did very little, that takes us back to Levi Eshkol, who, along with David Ben Gurion, stand out as independent Israel’s greatest leaders. So all in all, Bibi has outshone all but two of Israel’s leaders, and has certainly outshone Bibi ’96 as well.
So, Yam, why did you ask such a question?
Neither do most pundits on this and other pro Israel blogs.
Funny in all the years I have been following BB, I have yet to see him show any emotional anger in any of his public appearances nor felt his anger in reading any text he wrote.
Either he is a Super control freak or not human. I would diagnose him s having Alexithymia
Compounded with extreme paranoia ..What a toxic ( for us) MIX!!!
Yes I believe BB to be a sicko and we are paying the price. Sooner he is put out the safer I will feel.
Can anyone name BB’s political accomplishments in his last three years in office?