Netanyahu says there's no solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
The prime minister's trip to Italy does little for Israel's prospects for peace with the Palestinians.
By Etgar KeretThe flight to Rome leaves in the middle of the night. When I finish packing my small travel suitcase, my wife gives me a scrap of orange notepaper. It isn’t meant for me; it’s for the prime minister. It reads: “Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, I beg you do everything in your power to bring peace, for the sake of the future of our children and yours. Thank you, Shira.”
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Etgar Keret, left, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Rome’s Cavalieri Hotel. |
| Photo by: Tal Cohen |
I find this amusing, and she is offended. “What are you thinking?” I ask her. “That Bibi is like the Western Wall? That you can stick a note into a crack in him somewhere, pray a little and he’ll bring peace?”
“So forget the note,” she says. “Tell him something. Argue. Do something that will get him out of his bunker.”
“People don’t change their views that quickly,” I say. “Certainly Bibi doesn’t.”
“So you won’t succeed,” she says. “What do you have to lose? That you’ll look like a fool, the way I did with the note? So look like a fool, or like a pest. But at least try.”
At the hotel in Rome, Tal (the photographer) and I join the rest of the diplomatic reporters, who had arrived a day earlier. They tell me about their flight to Rome on the prime minister’s plane, which from their stories sounds like a real piece of junk. They call it “the drainpipe,” saying the seats don’t lean back and have no legroom. They say they’re jealous of me and Tal because we came on a commercial flight.
We’re supposed to be taken from the hotel lobby to a joint press conference by Netanyahu and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. I ask them if they think anything interesting will happen there − some kind of new initiative, a headline, something that could help jump-start the negotiations with the Palestinians. It takes me only a few seconds to understand they don’t really believe anything exciting will happen here.
Army Radio, for instance, sent its economic reporter. If this had been a trip to Washington, the diplomatic correspondent would almost certainly have gone. But for trips like these − the kind that have to be covered but no one expects to produce any drama that would require the reporter to use his sources and connections in the prime minister’s entourage − even a reporter from a different field will do.
“You know,” one of them tells me, “seven years ago we were in Rome for a similar meeting, something utterly routine. And suddenly, in the middle of the night, [Special Assistant to President Bush] Elliott Abrams arrived − here, in this very lobby − and [Ariel] Sharon informed the Americans that he had decided on the disengagement” from the Gaza Strip.
“However,” the reporter hastened to reassure me, “Netanyahu isn’t Sharon. So there’s no chance anything will happen.”
At the press conference, we wait together with dozens of Italian reporters for Netanyahu and Berlusconi to arrive. Everyone is amazed by the blue-and-white tent the Italians have set up. It’s truly beautiful. I’m particularly impressed by the giant painting behind the speakers’ dais. In it, you see something reminiscent of David playing his harp and, beside him, something that looks like the severed head of Goliath the Philistine − what one might call the roots of the conflict.
When I ask about the picture, the Israelis have no answers, but they’re happy to accompany me to one of the Italian officials. To my question about who did the painting, the Italian answers, with a sly smile, “A good one.” Then he waves his hands helplessly and explains that “Berlusconi likes nice things.”
But after an AP correspondent, who has grown curious about the throng, asks the same questions, the official calls someone to find out. The complete answer will be given to the journalists later, from the dais, when Berlusconi will say he heard that people were interested in the painting. And, after giving the artist’s name and when it was painted, he will add that it depicts a 19th-century bunga bunga party.
At that moment, it will be possible to hear more than 100 journalists laughing in relief. Thanks to Silvio, they will leave here with a headline after all.
Even before Netanyahu and Berlusconi start speaking, one of the people in Netanyahu’s delegation volunteers to explain to me − with somewhat surprising agreeableness and sincerity − how the whole thing works: The Italian reporters will ask two questions and the Israeli reporters will ask two questions. The questions are known ahead of time.
I try to find out whether the reporters will then be able to raise their hand and ask something spontaneous. He says no, and explains: “Bibi and Berlusconi have important messages to convey and this is, in fact, their shared platform for conveying them. To put a leader in an empty studio in front of a camera feels too totalitarian, so they build an event like this where they can go up on stage prepared and transmit in front of the cameras the messages on which they have decided to focus. These bilateral meetings always have the phase of the friendly slaps on the back, followed by the getting down to business, and then comes the phase I call the fax phase...” the man explained.
Netanyahu and Berlusconi go up on stage. They begin with their speeches and then take questions from reporters. It goes just like the man from the delegation explained. The messages are sharp and clear: The problem is not the settlements; the root of the conflict is the fact that the Palestinians refuse to recognize the existence of the Jewish state. What the countries of the world have to do is expose the true face of the Palestinians and force them to recognize Israel not only as just any country, but as a Jewish state.
Berlusconi, who had warmly complimented Netanyahu and Israel from the stage, nods every time he hears one of the messages, and from time to time − before Netanyahu issues some powerful statement, along the lines of the Arab spring turning into the Arab winter if Iran gets an atom bomb − he preempts it by a second and gestures toward Netanyahu like a magician finishing a particularly difficult trick and waiting for the cheers of the audience.
After the press conference, we go back to the hotel for an intimate briefing for Israeli political correspondents with the prime minister. Before we enter the hotel room where we are to meet Netanyahu, we undergo a thorough security check. They X-ray my bag three times. It has a small metal object that could be a weapon. After a long search of my bag, they discover it’s my laptop plug.
The Israeli journalists take their seats around the table and wait for the prime minister. One of them suggests not letting it run too long; if it finishes quick enough, there will be time for a little stroll around the Piazza Navona before the PM’s (people use the Hebrew abbreviation PM a lot, with its vaguely military feel) junk heap of a plane takes us back to Israel.
Netanyahu’s team is very friendly and attentive. They agree that, at the end of the briefing, Tal will take my picture with Netanyahu at the request of the newspaper, even though photographers have been banned from the briefing and the shot had not been coordinated ahead of time
I try to take advantage of their willingness a bit more and ask if I can ask Netanyahu only two questions after the briefing ends. The spokesman wants to know ahead of time what questions I plan on asking. I’m not surprised. In the few hours I’ve spent here, I already realize that in a dialogue between a journalist and a prime minister who feels persecuted by the media, there is great fear of an inappropriate question, almost as if I had managed to get into the weapons room.
I present my question. It’s not too difficult, but it’s still one for which the answer is not the need to expose the true face of the Palestinian leadership or, alternatively, that the Iranian nuclear program is not only a danger to Israel but to the whole world.
The spokesman tells me we’ll see at the end of the briefing if there’s time. And although he is very nice, it’s still clear to both of us that it will not happen and I realize that if I’ve made up my mind to try to speak to Netanyahu and look like a fool, I will have to do it in front of all the other journalists.
Netanyahu comes in and the briefing begins calmly and with smiles. The reporters and Bibi complain about the plane. It’s too narrow and the seats don’t tilt back. They took it because Netanyahu had, in the past, been raked over the coals by the newspapers for being ostentatious and wasteful and here we see things come full circle like every good morality tale; the people who wrote about the wastefulness now feel how unpleasant this frugality is for their back. Afterward we talk a little about the Iranian threat and a bit about Syria and how the Italians know how to put on an event, and how in Israel it will take 200 years to learn.
The briefing is already drawing to a close and I half push in and stutter a question. I travel a lot in the world, I say, and hear a lot of people who talk about Israel. Some love it and some hate it. But they all describe Israel as bogged down and passive. The Palestinians can initiate a flotilla one day and a declaration to the United Nations on another, while Israel, it seems, has no plan and can only react.
The prime minister objects and says these are the kind of statements that appear in the newspaper I’m writing for, but that does not yet mean it is true and that Israel actually has a great many friends, although we like to say it’s isolated. I nod and say that without reference to the issue of our friends, it is important for me to know what the government’s peace initiative is and what the plan is that we are promoting to end the conflict with the Palestinians.
The reporters around the table convey to me mixed feelings of empathy and impatience. They look at me the way I looked at my wife 14 hours before when she asked me to give Netanyahu a note from her. I feel as if they like this strange attempt of mine to get a pertinent answer from Netanyahu to my question, but for some of them at least, it’s a shame to waste valuable time on this empty move, especially when the clock is ticking and the Piazza Navona awaits.
The only person who treats the whole thing with patience and seriously is Netanyahu. “This is an insoluble conflict because it is not about territory,” he says. “It is not that you can give up a kilometer more and solve it. The root of the conflict is in an entirely different place. Until Abu Mazen recognizes Israel as a Jewish state, there will be no way to reach an agreement.”
The reporters around the table convey to me mixed feelings of empathy and impatience. They look at me the way I looked at my wife 14 hours before when she asked me to give Netanyahu a note from her. I feel as if they like this strange attempt of mine to get a pertinent answer from Netanyahu to my question, but for some of them at least, it’s a shame to waste valuable time on this empty move, especially when the clock is ticking and the Piazza Navona awaits.
The only person who treats the whole thing with patience and seriously is Netanyahu. “This is an insoluble conflict because it is not about territory,” he says. “It is not that you can give up a kilometer more and solve it. The root of the conflict is in an entirely different place. Until Abu Mazen recognizes Israel as a Jewish state, there will be no way to reach an agreement.”
Netanyahu made similar comments at a press conference a few hours earlier, but then it sounded like lusterless, recycled spin. Now that he was sitting across from me, looking me in the eye and explaining the same thing with endless patience, it suddenly sounded like the truth. Well, not my truth, but his truth.
I continued to nudge him, saying that even if all that was right, I still didn’t understand what pragmatic plan would come out of that conclusion. Netanyahu told me right away that the practical plan for advancing the peace process is to reiterate this at every opportunity.
“You have to see the effect it has on people,” he said, smiling. “You say it and they just remain slack-jawed.”
Just that day, he said, during a conversation with local politicians, he saw it happening before his eyes. Another writer at the table pointed out that we’ve said it more than once and it hasn’t convinced most countries. Netanyahu nodded and said the Palestinians have been spreading their lies for more than 40 years, and lies that have become so deeply entrenched cannot be uprooted quickly.
During the conversation the prime minister also mentioned an article he read about Ireland, which said more than 25 years had to pass before those who had been fighting England were able to moderate their position and become flexible enough to end the conflict. When I asked whether there wasn’t anything else that could be done for the peace process aside from reiterating the truths he announced to the world, the prime minister smiled a fatherly smile and said that sometimes we have to liberate ourselves of the feeling that everything is in our control. After all, it’s impossible to build an agreement on a lie, and until the Palestinians agree to accept Israel − not just as a country, but as the Jewish state − it will be impossible to move forward.
The meeting ended and we made way for the photographer ushered in by the spokesman, as Netanyahu, despite his busy schedule, willingly made time for the photo op. I watched from as close as I could. At Berlusconi’s press conference, I still saw in Netanyahu that slew of cliches that people typically attribute to him: scared opportunist wielding slogans just so he can hold on to his seat. But now, from a distance of just 20 centimeters, he looked like an obstinate and resolute man with an uncompromising, and very threatening, world view. I try to smile, but after this conversation I just can’t summon a smile, or hope. Just despair.
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really? no solution benny? how funny We were going to say there's no money or military aid to give to Israel. Then you can sit back and watch benny decide he wants peace and he's going to work for it.
The right will never change its mind it is like two deaf people talking to each other. Our big mistake was to build settlements after the 67 war. We should have drawn a defensive border and told the Palestinians to get on with their lives and not ruled over them. But Labour is also responsible and Peres was Minister of Defense when Sebastia and Hevron were build up so all governments of Israel are responsible
Israel is not only a Jewish Sovereign and Democratic State that was deemed so in its rebirthThat Arabs didn't accept it TOUGH. What is more there are no such people called Arab/Palestinians EVER..They are usurpers thieves of OUR HOLY ISRAEL..Let them go to where they really belong..i.e Jordan where all their brothers ARE/LIVE. Israel is Jewish,democratic, nation,people all rolled into one.
It's about what people want; and I think most of them want to live in peace. The extremes on both sides control the narrative, and everyone is else is being forced live out that narrative. Bibi isn't helping.
Thank you for this honest, fresh look at the Israeli Prime Minister and his world view, one that might cause despair except that he is of a certain generation and Mr Keret is of another, and the younger generation is slowly but surely coming into its own!
Most pragmatic and moderate Palestinians who seek a 2-state solution understand why there cannot be a return of refugees to within the green line. They may not be able to say so because of their domestic audience but if there was a resolution based on a return to the 67 lines with agreed land swaps I believe this would no longer be a significant issue. So why is it now? (1)Prior to the six-day war Israel perceived itself to be a homeland for Jews, so why is it such a major issue now? Netanyahu needs to find reasons not to negotiate. (2) The Palestinians have to adopt a more extreme position for domestic consumption because the Israelis are not prepared to talk about giving them a meaningful state. Give the Palestinians a state and I believe the r-o-r will diminish as an issue as the Palestinians themselves focus on buidling their country. If I am wrong and they try to flood Israel-proper with their own people Israel will have right and justice on its side to take sufficient measures to stop this from happening. The answer is for the Palestinians to get their own state. The right of return will then be an issue which (1) I do not believe they will pursue any longer (2) if they did, they would find themselves isolated on the international stage and, I would argue, impotent to do anything about it.
even if the abu mazen says the magic words of a jewish state the problem with not be resloved as long as two people want the same piece of land with extremists on both sides, the conflict will continue ad infinitim
right he is this is a problem of recognition of the right of the jewish people to their homeland in Eretz Israel
so we have to wait for Iran to get Nukes before a solution is found ?
Therein is the crux of the matter..Let the Arabs have their spring..That will turn into a WINTER,nothing to do with Israel.BB is spot on and I hope my PM Netanyahu sticks to his guns.No recognition of THE JEWISHS STATE..Most certanly there will not be a fakestininan one for sure..
When Bibi invented this ‚obstacle to peace’ at the beginning of his second term as PM he demanded the Palestinians to recognise Israel as ‚Jewish and democratic’. Now, it seems, he is not more interested for Israel in being recognised as democratic state … How did it come?
who needs enemies?
The present revolution in the Middle East has opened many eyes - nothing can change the main two systems - Eastern and Western. For instance, Russia and China will vote AGAINST Syria's killings of thousands of their people. Why? Because they want to keep open THEIR own right to kill their own people. Even in the millions as they have done not once before ... Back to Israel and Hamas. I mention those two because only they count - Hamas has taken over the hearts of Arabs. How in the world then, can Israel give away even a kilometer to that murderous organization who have declared time and again, that their idea is to eliminate Israel from the face of this world? A pity that so many good people don't ask themselves this question .... Like Amos Oz .... Well, the Public Relation of the billion Arabs have been way smarter than Israel ... as a result, the inherent anti-Semitism in most people, has flourished to the point that ALL of them plus the UN find it normal to condemn Israel for killing 9 Turks but not Syria for killing over one thousand Syrians and counting.
What is wrong with you people? Do not you understand that gaining acceptance as " A Jewish entity" will take time. a few hundred years for Example. The crux of the matter is to be able to stay there a few hundred years till you become an accepted part of the area. The peace process is not suppose to gain you acceptance. It is a deal to stop the fighting. To give the refugees compensation so they stop looking for ways to get back at you. Get it. or it is still raining there.
Bibi spoke the simple truth. Islamicists can never recognize a Jewish state, even though the Koran does.
How odd, because until Bibi became PM Israel was not the slighest bit concerned about that particular "obstacle". Indeed, did Netanyahu ever demand this - even once - in his first term as Prime Minister??
How can you call Israel a Jewish state when a quarter of its citizens aren't Jews? If you want a Jewish state, call it something with Jew in the name. and then call all its citizens Jews. But the rabbis won't allow that willl they?
israel declared herself a jewish state in her declaration of independence. israel was admitted as such to the united nations. however, israel did not state that all of her citizens were jewish. indeed, israel guarnteed political and civil rights to all of her citizens. in this she differs from all muslim countries.
WHEN IT COMES TO EQUALITY OF ALL ISRAELIS.
the muslims refuse to accept any sovereign state that is not muslim in the middle east. indeed, the muslims refuse to accept any religious minority in their midst.
You hold delusions, too. The PA has Christians and Muslims and Druze. The two , nations, Israel and the PA are now just too intertwined to separate. The settlements have assured that. Neither the settlers nor the Palestinians will move without violence. And neither Jordan nor Egypt has an interest in accepting refugees. Time to rethink while there is rough parity of populations. Get a constitution that assures minority rights along with majority rule.
You hold delusions, too. The PA has Christians and Muslims and Druze. The two , nations, Israel and the PA are now just too intertwined to separate. The settlements have assured that. Neither the settlers nor the Palestinians will move without violence. And neither Jordan nor Egypt has an interest in accepting refugees. Time to rethink while there is rough parity of populations. Get a constitution that assures minority rights along with majority rule.
This is news? Its more about personal observations and begging for the impossible. Net is the one speaking truth and you can thank Obama especially for the wars to come. Can you not hear Iran et loud enough for over 30 years? Liberal cowrds beging and appeasing to war are typical and enemies of the world. Israel is painted in the nuke corner as the reality of the situation. I mean Hizzbulah and Hamas cannot say it louder either! Ramp up the nukes,gas and bios as the only answer. Ill liberals and war are oxmorons with the ephasis on Morons. Obama and Black Liberation Theology /BLT is not any Kosher sandwich yet full of pork. A vote for Obama is a vote against the Jews. if Louis Farrakahan, Wright ,Sherpton, Opera and others dont say it loud enoough then your dear,dumb and blind. Deploy the Nukes and stop being ashamed cowards. The corrupt UN and NATO are ILLEGITIMATE so stop the charade. So Turkeys terror flotilla attack is what? Israels only friends are conservatives in the US with liberal American Jews signing Israels death warrants for reelection as their only game. Europeons cant sell terrorist enough weapons and WMDs they deny Israel. Sorry mate but you/the world is surrounded by Sharia Law as tacticifally stated by Bibi. Watch the web documentary IRANIUM for facts many refuse to hear. Sorry, their is only war and mass destruction by the Barbarians at the gates. Spend your time stating facts and stop dreaming of the impossible. Yes I will Ailya for the wars to come, and draft everyone and especially ideslistic young punks as cowards paying their dues. So stop being weak and man up if you want results, and the only results will be measured by body bags in the millions. Yes, we have been sold out again for oil if Libya is not a clue. Sacrifice Shalit and stop trying to dream the impossible. The ONLY good defense is a strong offence so show them your guns or be lost forever. This kind of stuff only enables your enemies stop trying to please Obama and attack him at will! As a Jew, I have only shame for American amd Ill liberal Jews, and especially with women endorsing Sharia Law. Cut the noise and focus on blattles courtesy of Obama and BLT you ignore.
Barack Hussein Obama: America’s First Anti-Israeli President? are portions of the comments by Colonel Peters in response to questioning by Megyn Kelly on “America Live” on March 26, 2010: “This is something about a chip on the President’s shoulder…Israel wants to live in peace with its neighbors, its neighbors want Israel destroyed. The President refuses to understand that…It’s become a credo of the left…that Israel is always the oppressor and that Palestinian terrorists are freedom fighters…You have to look at the President’s background…. His mother, extremely left, his university chums, on the left, Bill Ayers, left, 20 years with Reverend Wright. All of their doctrines say the Palestinians are wonderful and the Israelis are basically Nazis…and I think the President has got that by osmosis… Beyond the armchair psychoanalysis, you have to look at what people do, listen to what they say, and this is our first anti-Israeli President. Its bewildering its astonishing.“ Colonel Peters appears to be speaking without an evidentiary basis about Obama’s mother and university chums, as no evidence has surfaced that ties them to anti-Israeli thinking. However, Bill Ayers, who was associated with the President for many years, recently demonstrated his anti-Israeli thinking by being “one of 431 academics to sign a petition calling for divestment, boycott and sanctions against Israel.” The Reverend Wright, who was the President’s “spiritual adviser” for decades, is a longtime strong supporter of well-known anti-Semite Louis Farrakan. That in a nutshell is why he is for the Arabs & The Fakestinians .. At the end of the day EXPECT WAR..
The title to this article is extremely misleading. The punchline that "without Abu Mazen recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, there will be no peace deal" is a refrain repeated by Netanyahu on numerous occasions. This is not news. Although other aspects of the article are fascinating and well written.
Bibi is convinced that an end-to-the-conflict would only cramp-his-style, and therfore he will avoid it at all costs...
The root of the conflict is the attempt to build The Jewish State in a basically Arab land. Israel has a Jewish majority and a strong Jewish flavour. It would be a huge step forward if Netanyahu would be happy with that and drop the Jewish State BS.
What you say Michael is only true if you consider Judaism a religion rather than a culture. I am not religious but I am Jewish. I would like to keep my culture in Israel. every country in the world has a culture, and has minorities who live there and are not discriminated against. Why should Israel be defined as Jewish be any different than France being defined as french? - because the name of the culture is identical to the name of the religion? France is clearly catholic with a french culture.... the words is different, but conceptually it is the same thing.
Most people, including me, accept Israel as a state with a Jewish majority. No problem with that, and that's all 181 meant. What it did not mean was turning Israel into an ethnocracy with non-Jews as second class citizens. So in that context recognizing "The Jewish State" IS a crazy new conecpt of Bibi's.
In Israel however, it is about preserving Jewish majority and there is already a big problem with discrimination.
I think the problem is the combination between the rhetoric and the action. If Israel had not already shown it has a discrimination problem, this wouldn't be such a big deal. Israel needs a constitution which safeguards minorities.
I think the problem is the combination between the rhetoric and the action. If Israel had not already shown it has a discrimination problem, this wouldn't be such a big deal. Israel needs a constitution which safeguards minorities. Lets be honest. If America called itself a gentile state and start building Jew-free housing blocks, many here would be up in arms about it. See where I'm coming from Ron? Thanks for making a sensible point
More useful insights in your article than in a hundred pieces from gone-native political correspondents (and they all do in the end). I guess all good journalists should ask what the wife would, she's the viewer/reader after all. Too often we ask what our colleagues would or, worse, what our subject's minders want us to.
If Bibiyahu spent half the time that he is wasting on convincing others not to vote for the Palestinians, and used that time and his "gift of the gab" to forward peace, the world might be a better place
In a one-state solution, Israel would have to choose between its claim to a Jewish character or its claim to democracy. In the two-state solution, it simply wouldn't matter whether Israel was given special ethnic recognition or not.
I favour a compensation program, I'm sure many countries would contribute so Israel wouldn't have to foot all the bill. They'd be so pleased to see the end of conflict it would be worth it
I favour a compensation program, I'm sure many countries would contribute so Israel wouldn't have to foot all the bill. They'd be so pleased to see the end of conflict it would be worth it
...Arab Initiative platform. Cheers
Abu Mazen, please recognize Israel as a Jewish state. As Netanyayu correctly states, we both know that anything short of such a recognition will be an insincere 'peace'; one of clinging to your dream of changing Israel into Palestine.
The Arabs have never accepted ANY Jewish state within ANY borders- still don't, and won't. This is why there was never a solution, and won't be. This is also why every single territorial "solution" has failed. You can't fit a square peg in a round hole. Fine: We can continue like this. The longer the Arabs waited, the less they were going to get anyway. Now they'll get NO part of OUR land- the land of Israel.
The Arab Peace Initiate is on the table. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Peace_Initiative Read it!
Go home Yishai---your time as an illegal setler is over and given your rabid arab hatred I doubt you would be able to keep your mouth shut amongst your soon to be fellow Palestinina brothers. has a nice ring to it---"Palestinian Jew" in the Palestinian State. Ready to recognise it as the Palestunuan State where you wull be a minority. Eh Yishai.
Netanyahu, stop using Jewishness for justifying your foolish, irritating policies. Peace needs great men. You are small and arrogant. You are as always a big "Shakran:
who can read and write think otherwise except the delusional Left ?
So if Abu Mazen recognizes Israel as a Jewish State (note that neither Egypt or Jordan has done that but we have Peace Treaties with them...) Bibi will come up with another excuse. If Israel is to remain Democratic and Jewish there will need to be negotiations. In other words, there will need to be a new gov't!
ROR is an issue to be dealt with in negotiations. You can't have cake before the party
ROR is an issue to be dealt with in negotiations. You can't have cake before the party
Israelis will NOT like the result. Since Israel has given the Arabs no option but war, that is how it will end. A massive war that Israel (along with the US) loses, with most Israelis fleeing the ME, never to return, although no one in Israel appears to understand this except Etgar Keret's wife. If Israel does not share the land and water in fair manner, the "might makes right doctrine" Israel has followed for 60+ years will be turned back on them and most of the world will just watch it happen, since MOST of the world does NOT care if Israel exists. Why are there no Israelis that understand that the future can only get worse for Israel? Why are there no Israelis that can understand the IDF can NOT win every war going forward? The children of today's Israelis will curse Bibi and the rest of the current Israeli leadership for being such fools. The current path is NOT a path to greatness, but to destruction. (Of course to spare Israelis such negative thoughts, Haaretz will suppress this)
you are right. that is why israel has the ability to make the world take notice.
What you describe is exactly what would happen to Israel and its Jewish population if they would accept peace according to the terms and conditions proposed by the Arabs
is chosen? That is what you are essentially saying when you say that a peace agreement with the Arabs will lead to war? If that is the case, then every Israeli with a brain should be packing their bags right now, because according to you, regardless what Israel does, it will be destroyed.
One learns from your articles that the PMs plane needs replacing. The problem is that if the State were to order a new plane your newspaper and its reporters would immediately scream about the waste of money involved. You cant have it both ways
Demographically Israel is 76% Jewish and about 20% Muslm. That is a multi-ethnic state, not a Jewish State. By comparision, the USA is about 83% Christian, but we are not a Christian state. Until Israel recognizes that it is a multiethnic state and extends full citizenship rights to its non-Jewish citizens, Israel will not be fully accepted by the Palestinains or much of the world.
Israel is a Jewish State this is a fact!! If you do not accept this then, by your definition Israel should not exist. If this is your position, you are denying history, God, a value system & are a proponant to George Orwell's 1984 of Newspeak, tyrrany & Communism & perhapa Netura Kartism. It is sad that in 2011, when people have a chance for education, yoy still have thse archaic views.
Mr. Etgar Keret your last quote from the PM is truley the correct answer that people do not want to hear. Its the truth and it hurts. Instant solutions andresults like your wife demands are the false prophets
That's good-- we all know what became of Sharon's disengagement from Gaza.
I am confused as to why the headline of the article states that Netanyahu claims there will be no end to the conflict, when the quote at the end clearly states that he believes there could be, when each side recognizes the other as a legitimate entity with its own intrinsic rights.
He's right in the sense that +/-1 km would not solve the problem/war/hatred/hostility/terrorism, but rather a genuine acceptance of Israel and as a Jewish state, rather than a desire to destroy it inside out or outside in...
So, Mr Abu Mazen, how do you answer to this ?
I suspect that he will give an honest answer i.e. Israel can call itself "the state of excitement" for all that it matters to him........
His name is Congressman Weiner.
It will be the third and may be the last historic failure of jewish people to insist upon establishing a jewish state in this part of the world.
all empires are gone but jews have their state after an exile of over two thousand years. do not even think that you can destroy the reborn jewish state.
The thief who has taken something from me says unfortunately our disagreement is insoluble because it is not about what he stole from me it is about how I feel about him. If I say I love having him in the neighborhood then everything will be ok. Meanwhile he continues everyday to steal from me and keeps saying the only real problem is that I dont like and honor him.
Land lost in an agressive war is not 'stolen'. Palestinians never owned this land, so, again, it cannot be stolen. Hence, there is no thief, only 2 parties that cannot agree.
I am a huge fan of Etgar Keret's fiction, but it is foolish to imagine that every conflict can be solved in the immediate or even the middle term. Most national disputes go on for generations until there is a seismic paradigm shift, as with West Germany and France brought together by the Cold War. Sometimes, conflicts can only be managed.
True... but sometimes one can learn from history.
Swallow hate propaganda
When the Israeli adolescents chant "Death to Arabs" while the police watch on, that is not hatred? Israelis do not only force their children to swallow hatred, but to bathe in it too.
There's always been something next with Israel, because its Israel's way of forestalling any progress. Way back when it was recognizing Israel - Arafat did it. Five or six years ago it was recognize Israel's right to exist - Abbas did it. Then three years ago or so, Lieberman(who else?), dreams up the this new one of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state...which has become Israel's latest fixation - and if Abbas does that? What's next? Recognition of a greater Israel with no room for Palestinians? It's all a ploy to forestall a final agreement, and every time the Palestinians have conceded, the bar has been raised. Netanyahu could care less whether the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state...because honestly, it has no effect on anything and no meaning in addition to the recognition the Palestinians have already afforded. To him, it's just a ploy that he can sell to the world as a reason for refusing to reach an agreement. And if they do it, there'll STILL be no movement on his part, because that's his intention in the first place...and a NEW demand will be devised!
Withdraw to 1948 borders, stop the occupation, bring down the Apartheid Wall and let the Palestinians be. But that's easier said than done since Israel doesn't want any peace and its ultimate goal is the assimilation of all Palestinian land and annihilation of the population
http://www.takeapen.org/english/encyclopedia_E.html
yup all human rights groups including the ones in israel aim to destroy israel.. all academics and left wings including israel's own who speak against israel..aim to destroy israel with their lies. plaestine has been empty for 2000 years waiting for bani israel to return. keep those zionist fairytales coming
When they see their lies they deny and block it out - because much of that culture is fable based.
Then what happens when Settlers have taken all the land in Judea and Samaria. Of course there MUST be a 'solution' and Netanyahu will accept no other solution than a Final Solution. Israel, as Netanyahu, refuses to consider, much less confront, the inevitable end of which achieving it's goals must produce.
There will be peace between the Arabs and Israel, but it won't last it will usher in an invasion from Russia, and other Arab states "When they say peace and safety then sudden destruction will come upon them" These are the words of holy writ. There will be wholesale repentence by Israel for crucifying there Mesiah. What DID THEY SAY "His blood be on us and our children" God will take them at their word. But there will be deliverance for Israel. God will intervene see Ezekiel 38/39. then Israel will be the head and not the tail. Not the orange paper ,but the Word of God "Seek ye out the book ofthe Lord and read:no one of these shall fail..."(Isaiah34:16)
Yes I realize that's the point, but really... Guess what, Netanyahu is right.
and the people themselves recognize Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people there can be no agreement. Without a recognized national homeland, and solid ground under our feet...we're dead. I would advise this newspaper/media outlet to stop concealing the results of Israel national public opinion pools. The nation is solidly behind the prime minister.
Then the One State solution is an inevitability. You shall reap what you sow.
AM YISRAEL CHAI! The People Israel lives!
NOT JEWS.
Labr-ass, read both the Declaration of Independence and the 1947 UN Partition Resolution: Israel was created as the JEWISH STATE.
Yes, Israelis are the citizens. But this does not negate this being a Jewish State. A Jewish State can have citizens that are not Jewish. Judaism is not simply a religion and this is why we have a term for it 'Am Israel'.
Look, the simple fact is this. The 'palestinians' have been killing Israelis and Jews since before 'occupation', before 'settlements' and even before Israel was reestablished. The Europeans have been force fed propaganda to make this conflict about 'settlements' - but Israelis know this is not the case. The fact is that the Muslims will not accept a Jewish state. That is their problem. The whole of Israel and the fact it is Jewish. So for them to recognise it as a Jewish state is a big step. So the 'palestinians' better start recognising, or they can go whistle for their state.