Weekly Commentary: Will Netanyahu return to straightforward talk on Palestinian sovereignty?

Dr. Aaron Lerner
Date: 11 June 2009

Hands down Binyamin Netanyahu made his most eloquent and
straightforward speech to date back on May 12, 2002 when he explained to
the Likud's Central Committee why Israel must oppose the creation of
a sovereign Palestinian state.

Netanyahu warned that if a sovereign Palestinian state were established that
it would be impossible to enforce security restrictions and limitations on
it and that once created, .the sovereign Palestinian state would continue
to exist even though it defied the terms of the agreement under which it was
established.

Since then most of Netanyahu's remarks about a Palestinian state have
focused on noting that a necessary condition for any final status
arrangement with the Palestinians is that various security restrictions and
limitations are in place.

Those who know the history of the debate understand that this is code for
"no sovereign Palestinian state" because there is no way to truly guaranty
that those restrictions and limitations will indeed be in place.

But many observers fails to connect the dots.
And that's a pity.
This Sunday Binyamin Netanyahu could very well be making

the policy address of his career.

It remains to be seen if he will opt for a return to the clarity of May 12,
2002.

One certainly hopes so.
Because while the diplomatic thing may be to rely on dot connecting

to make the point, one can hardly expect this approach to

successfully explain anddefend policy in a world with a five second attention span.