IMRA Weekly Commentary..
10 January '13..
In the 14 June 2009 Address by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies, Bar-Ilan University, Mr. Netanyahu described the security requirement for a Palestinian state as follows:
"The second principle is: demilitarization. The territory under Palestinian control must be demilitarized with ironclad security provisions for Israel."
At the time, MKs and even ministers in his party suggested that it is virtually impossible to have "ironclad security provisions" if a Palestinian state is truly a sovereign state.
Why not?
Because even if a sovereign Palestinian state was actually created as a result of an agreement that included security provisions that on paper sounded workable, that Palestinian state would continue to be a sovereign state even if it opted to renege on the agreement.
So much for "ironclad".
There were, of course, those who opted to ignore this fundamental problem and still saw the Bar Ilan Address as an endorsement of a truly sovereign state.
This week Mr. Netanyahu tightened the requirement.
In an interview on 6 January 2013 on Israel Radio, PM Netanyahu cited his Bar Ilan Address and described the demilitarization requirement as follows:
"Demilitarized territory, with strong security provisions that we are responsible for."
This is a very interesting development.
No more speculation about the possibility of relying on third parties (FM Avigdor Liberman has talked about the use of NATO or other forces in the past).
Instead, Israel is to be responsible for the "strong security provisions".
And if Israel is to be responsible for the "strong security provisions" then we are most definitely talking about a form of autonomous – rather than sovereign - Palestinian state.
Link: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=59731
Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.
.
Posts
In other words, Netanyahu is inching along to the Puerto Rico solution I have long advocated.
ReplyDeleteThe Arabs can have everything but an army. It makes Israel a federal state in association with "Palestine" but that's far to be preferred over the alternative: Hamastan.
A commonwealth for the Arabs would be the best outcome.