A counting and an accounting

Yisrael Medad
Green-Lined /JPost
07 September '10

As Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made clear in Washington last week, recalling the 2009 speech he gave at Bar-Ilan University in Israel when he had outlined the two pillars of peace that he presumes will enable all the outstanding issues of peace negotiations to be resolved, he last week announced with Hillary Clinton and Mahmoud Abbas at his side:

And these are legitimacy and security. Just as you expect us to be ready to recognize a Palestinian state as the nation state of the Palestinian people, we expect you to be prepared to recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. There are more than a million non-Jews living in Israel, the nation state of the Jewish people, who have full civil rights. There is no contradiction between a nation state that guarantees the national rights of the majority and guaranteeing the civil rights, the full equality of the minority."

And the issue of security, being currently different than it was a dozen years ago, Netanyahu tclarified in that Bar Ilan speech:

a real peace must take into account the genuine security needs of Israel that have changed; they've changed since I was last here...In these 12 years, new forces have risen in our region, and we've had the rise of Iran and its proxies, and the rise of missile warfare. And so a peace agreements - a peace agreement must take into account security arrangement against these real threats that have been directed against my country."

I am aware that his words were meant mainly for the American Administration and the media. Nevertheless, we Israelis were listening closely. With the Rosh Hashana High Holiday season upon us, I have two comments on his words.

(Read full post)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.