Last update - 00:00 15/06/2009
Live blogging: Netanyahu's policy speech
Haaretz.com provided minute by minute coverage of Netanyahu's speech at Bar-Ilan University on Sunday night.
By Benjamin L. Hartman, Haaretz Correspondent
20:53
The speech was like a nod to the old pre-intifada way of looking at the Palestinians, but at the same time mentioning two states.
It seemed to be no to dividing Jerusalem, no to the return of refugees or an independent state and no to a real settlement freeze. But you'll be well-off and taken care of.
I think Netanyahu has make it pretty clear that he will toe the line of his coalition and won't make any big concessions
20:47
And it's back to the council of seven in the Channel 10 studio.
I guess we should admit it'd be hard to talk about giving up settlements in front of an audience from Bar Ilan - although Obama was able to talk about Holocaust denial, support for Israel and Coptic Christians in front of about 10 thousand Arabs
20:44
"Palestinians must choose - the way of peace, or the way of Hamas" - So now it's on Hamas, who won't even let the Red Cross visit Gilad Shalit
Oh, Shalit mention - he didn't get one in Cairo
"We have to get him home" - proving wrong on some level those who said he'd leave the soldier as Olmert's problem
20:42
So, the Palestinians have to recognize Israel as the Jewish state, give up their refugees, and disarm their state in as yet unmentioned area, and
Jerusalem will not be divided
20:37
"In the heart of the motherland live Palestinians - we don't want to rule them - or put our flag over them - we want two peoples living side by side"
No mention yet where these neighbors will live
"There is more pulling Israeli society together than apart..."
A fifth mention of recognition of the Jewish state and more on a demilitarized Palestinian state
"We don't want missiles on Petah Tikvah, Grads on Tel Aviv, or missiles on Ben-Gurion"
20:33
"We took in refugees on a tiny piece of land, so the Arabs can take in refugees..." - cue more loud applause
So far Israel appears to be giving away nothing
"If there had been an Israel, there would have been no Shoah..." I guess that's his answer to Obama saying that Israel grew out of the ashes of the Shoah
20:30
"Suicide bombers and rockets met our last withdrawal" - that's hard to argue with...
"Israel is the state of the Jewish people and will remain so" - Bar-Ilan applauds, long and loud.
"Peace requires bravery and integrity..."
20:26
"The root of the problem is the non-recognition of Israel as a Jewish state"
This links in to the riots of the 1920s, and a list of the years in which Israel was attacked
20:22
Netanyahu tells the Palestinians: "We want our kids and your kids to never see war again" and mentions his brother Yoni, who died leading the raid at Entebbe
"I don't want war, no one in Israel wants war" - an easy applause line that succeeds.
"We must ask ourselves why peace is so distant, even though we want it..."
20:19
Netanyahu wants to meet Arab leaders anywhere
He again unveils the economic cooperation peace plan - didn't we try this at the Erez industrial zone and in the Dead Sea with Jordan?
He calls for an immediate start to peace talks (uncomfortable shifting in seats heard) with no preconditions
20:15
Three mentions of Iran in first two minutes
"Israel-U.S. relationship stronger than ever"
"Iran is the greatest threat in the Middle East"
"Peace process the most important proces ahead of us"
He appeals to the Arab world: "Let's make peace, let's talk peace"
Are we at Cairo University?
20:13
Nice dark blue Likud colored tie, and an uncomfortable pause.
"Peace has always been our dream..."
There's a tip of the hat to Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin
20:10
Netanyahu arrives!
20:09
Channel 10 correspondent Raviv Drucker says Bibi shouldn't worry about people in his party, they can't bring him down
20:06
Still no sign of David Grossman
20:05
Haim Ramon is saying he hopes Bibi goes for two-state solution, the undeniable solution.
20:02
Chico Menashe (not a Mexican rabbi) is on the scene for Channel 10. Shabbakniks (Shin Bet operatives) enter stage left. Sara Netanyahu is apparently shmoozing with two middle-aged men near the entrance to what appears to be an ENT clinic
19:53
Channel 10 are currently on their pre-game programming, showing footage of a cobalt backdrop at the Begin-Sadat Center, and a stage five feet from the crowd
19:50
Bibi strikes back: From the fortress of Bar-Ilan, Netanyahu issues his answer to the Cairo speech
In what will probably from now on be known as "The Bar-Ilan speech" or simply "The speech," Benjamin Netanyahu will give the address of his life, defining the vision or lack thereof that will be his foreign policy legacy of this, his second try at Prime Minister. The fact that it comes in the hallowed halls of Bar-Ilan University, the cathedral of National religious Zionism, makes the significance, possibly, hopefully, all that much greater.
Or we could just witness Bibi's well-crafted stall tactics to put off diplomatic or even rhetorical concessions.
The speech has been "leaked" a number of times in the preceding weeks, with "unnamed sources" hinting at Washington's expected lukewarm (at best) response, and others even laying out what they say are specific details of the speech. Among these details, is apparently the possibility that Bibi will call for a two-state solution, only with the Palestinian "state" being demilitarized with no sovereign airspace and IDF troops on all borders controlling all...
He's also expected to demand the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state, a bold statement, if just in the fact that the demand is made knowing it probably won't be met, thus delaying talks again further and further past the horizon.
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