Why fight an 800 pound gorilla when…

By Ted Belman

On June 28 the Foreign Ministry of Israel posted its five principles about which PM Netanyahu said “I saw that there was a genuine international willingness to accept them as foundations for peace.”

- The first principle is the need for explicit Palestinian recognition of the State of Israel as the national state of the Jewish people.

- The second need is the demilitarization of a Palestinian state in such a manner that all of Israel’s security needs will be met.

- The third item is that there must be international backing of these security arrangements in the form of explicit international guarantees.

- The fourth item is that the problem of refugees must be resolved outside the borders of Israel.

- The fifth item is the need that the agreement be an end to the conflict. This is to say that the Palestinians will not be able to raise additional claims following the signing of a peace agreement.

Prof Barry Rubin of GLORIA commented on this communique and made a special point of writing

If these conditions are met, Israel will recognize an independent Palestinian state. Note that the plan claims no territory on the West Bank or even claims east Jerusalem.

This shocked me.

Take note that Israel didn’t make their acceptance a pre-condition to negotiations. I wondered about this in an earlier article and suggested that that omission means they are not red lines. On further reflection that may not be correct.

You may recall that Netanyahu didn’t mention borders or settlements in his recent speech either.

I suggest there is a strategy in place here. First of all by not mentioning them, Netanyahu is attempting to remove the demands for a freeze from the current agenda of the US and Europe. Instead he wants the world to focus on his principles. He wants to take the pressure off Israel regarding the freeze and put it on the Palestinians to accept these principles.

The Arabs want to talk about settlements, refugees and full withdrawal and Netanyahu is changing the agenda for negotiations to the principles. Israel would rather talk about these principals which is her strong point and avoid talking about the “occupation” which is her weak point.

Arlene Kushner commented on the The Netanyahu Statement in which Netanyahu said

“We attained national consensus over the concept of ‘two states for two peoples,’ and the lines of agreement are first of all that the Palestinians must recognize the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish People and that also means that the problem of the refugees will be resolved outside of the State of Israel and that Israel needs and will receive defensible borders that also includes full demilitarization of the Palestinian territory. The development of the national consensus around these principles is the most important expression of the unity government.”

She included the headlines from all the dailies which parroted this message.

Many on the right have no time for games. They want straight talk, outright rejection and confrontation. Netanyahu prefers to manage the diplomatic to and fro’ without giving anything away.

Why fight an eight hundred pound gorilla when you can deflect his attention. Many will argue that sooner or later the Gorilla will come back to you for a meal. Then another strategy will be in order.