Subscribe to Print Edition | Thu., November 12, 2009 Cheshvan 25, 5770 | | Israel Time: 00:49 (EST+7)
Haaretz israel news English
web haaretz.com
Jewish World Haaretz Toolbar
Diplomacy
Defense Opinion National
Print Edition
Car Rental
Focus U.S.A. Strenger than Fiction Business Travel Magazine Week's End Anglo File Books
Share |
With Mofaz as Beilin
By Haaretz Editorial
Tags: Israel news

Israel's diplomatic situation has hit bottom. Negotiations with the Palestinians are paralyzed and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is threatening to quit. The Syrian track is in a rut. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has trouble getting a meeting at the White House. The Goldstone report portrays Israel as a criminal state, and all this comes against the backdrop of increasing strategic threats: the occupation, the erosion of the demographic balance and the growing arsenals of Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas.

Netanyahu is declaring his desire and ability to achieve peace with the Palestinians, but is refraining from presenting a peace blueprint beyond his calls for resuming talks and his demands for the demilitarization of the future Palestinian state and its recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Deterred by political upheaval, Netanyahu rejected U.S. President Barack Obama's demand to freeze settlement construction. Instead of leading, the prime minister makes do with public support as reflected in the polls.

Netanyahu's colleagues in the coalition and the opposition have, like him, refrained from unveiling peace plans, with the hackneyed explanation that Israel has no negotiating partner. Then MK Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) comes along this week and proposes a plan for establishing a Palestinian state gradually on "most of the territories" captured in 1967. Mofaz, as a former defense minister and army chief of staff, is aware of the military and demographic dangers facing Israel and sees a solution in the evacuation of the settlements and the setting up of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. He is a far cry from other politicians in his willingness to talk with Hamas.
Advertisement
Mofaz's proposal is not perfect. Its feasibility is in doubt and it's hard to find a Palestinian counterpart who would, at the start of the negotiations, recognize Israeli sovereignty over West Bank communities such as Ariel and Ma'aleh Adumim, as the Mofaz plan provides. The plan's details are less important, however, than the very existence of the initiative, which poses a challenge to Netanyahu and his government and stimulates public debate. This is the opposition's classic role in a democratic system. It's what Yossi Beilin did when he proposed the Geneva Initiative as a recipe for breaking the diplomatic stalemate when Ariel Sharon was prime minister.

The Geneva Initiative was one of the factors that led Sharon to announce the Gaza disengagement. The Mofaz plan, along with the pressure from the United States, can play a similar role in the Netanyahu era and prod the prime minister to go beyond the peace process' paralysis and submit an initiative of his own as a solution to the Palestinian conflict.
PROMOTION: Mamilla Hotel
Bookmark to del.icio.us  
 
Angelina's Syrian baby
Oscar-winner reportedly planning to adopt her seventh child.
Sick of Bibi
Netanyahu's diplomacy resembles that of a haggler at the Shuk, not a statesman.
Special Offers
Advertisement
Eldan Rent a Car
Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on online reservations
Date Local Jewish Singles
Ready to meet your match? Join Jdate today!
Junkyard
Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt
More Headlines
00:44 Netanyahu to Sarkozy: Israel ready for Syria talks without preconditions
00:43 Hezbollah chief: Obama gives Israel more support than Bush did
00:03 Lebanon condemns four alleged Israel spies to death
00:02 Brazil to buy $350 million worth of drones from Israel
00:34 Probe: Near 5-plane crash at B-G Airport due to systemic glitch
00:32 Carlo Strenger / The world is sick of Netanyahu's lack of policy
00:11 Report: Angelina Jolie planning to adopt child from Syria
00:32 TV ROUND-UP: Arafat remembered, 'Israel spies' condemned to death
00:21 Ahmadinejad to Obama: Choose between Israel and Iran
00:20 Israel shows papers linking Iran to seized 'Hezbollah arms ship'
00:53 Dutch FM: Israel, Hamas must probe Gaza war crimes charges
00:35 Palestinian cave-dweller fights Israeli eviction
Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | Site rules |
| Advert: Recommended Restaurants | Makom: Engaging on Israel
| Search engine marketing
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
© Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved