Netanyahu Surprises at 10th Annual Herzliya Conference
Israelis continue to yearn for a peace that remains elusive. So suggested the three-and-a-half days of vigorous give-and-take at the 10th annual Herzliya Conference on Israel’s national security.
Organized by the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center at Herzliya, the international conference featured not only a culminating address last night by the prime minister of Israel, but also an historic address the evening before by Salam Fayyad, the first prime minister of the Palestinian Authority to come to Israel to give a speech since the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004. Taken together, the words of the two prime ministers offered cause for hope even as they avoided or obscured the fundamental obstacles to peace.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu surprised. Although he emphasized “engagement,” instead of focusing on the obvious issues — the Palestinians, Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran — he argued for “engagement with tradition, Zionism, our past and our future.” Such engagement, he maintained, reflects the recognition that Israel’s military strength is inseparable from its economic strength, and that preservation of both depends on education broadly conceived. According to Netanyahu, Israel must dedicate itself to schooling its children from an early age not only in math and science, but also and especially in the history, culture, and values of the Jewish people, which are rooted in the Bible and love of the land of Israel.
Notwithstanding these grand themes, engagement of a more politically conventional sort was on Netanyahu’s mind as well. At the beginning of his speech, he revealed that he has reason “to hope that in the coming weeks we will renew the peace process with the Palestinians without preconditions.” This willingness to pursue political negotiations is a departure for Netanyahu. In his campaign last January, he had argued that Israel should concentrate on assisting West Bank Palestinians in developing their economy, but avoided mentioning, or otherwise opening the door to, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
In his speech the previous evening, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Fayyad — who sat beside and shook hands with Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak, whom he followed on stage — insisted on the Palestinians’ right to statehood. Indeed, an independent Palestinian state, he stressed, is the indispensable condition for lasting peace. Palestinians under his leadership, he said, have every intention of continuing to enhance their ability to govern themselves by developing civil society, strengthening the economy, and building political institutions that will form the basis of a Palestinian state. At the same time, he declared that Israel must do its part to make Palestinian independence a reality. To that end, Fayyad called on Israel to cease military operations in the West Bank, recognize East Jerusalem as an integral part of a Palestinian state, and lift what he called “the siege on Gaza.”
Well,Cousin Bibi has nothing to lose by at least making the offer…he knows going in that the odds of the Palestinians actually agreeing to anything meaningful are only about 1 in 10 at best anyway…so by doing this,he effectively shows pragmatism and if his offer is spurned,then nobody can say that at least he didn’t try
This article is so unrealistic it deserves no comment.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has accepted the line that Israel is to blame for the wars of the Arabs against it. It is not. The Arabs could make peace instantly by ceasing to fight against Israel.
The Arabs, miscalled “Palestinians,” do not deserve yet another state, especially one in the historic land of the Jews. Calling them “Palestinian” is the effect of Soviet propaganda, which with Gamal Nasser in 1964 in Cairo established the “Palestine Liberation Organization,” followed by history rewrite. “Palestine” has always meant “the land of the Jews” or “the Holy Land” since the Roman Emperor Hadrian renamed Judea “Palestina” in 135 A.D., after defeating the last of the Jewish rebellions under Bar Kochba (and he outlawed Judaism), and “Palestinian” always meant “Jew.” That is why the Zionists wanted the “Palestine Mandate” and the British were awarded the “Palestine Mandate” as homeland for the Jews.
“This article is so unrealistic it deserves no comment.”
If anyone believe anything in there, there a bridge in New York for sale…
No, Bibi is drowning the fish, stretching time until Obama
will have lost all teeth and credibility to finish off
Iran and it’s proxies…at least that’s what one hope if Netanyahu has
any brains left…however, with Israelis, you never can tell,
Jews self-hate has no bottom, most of them went willingly to the Shoah!
(Syria has solved it’s Muslim Brothers problem ages ago!
WHAT THE HELL THEM JEWS ARE WAITING FOR??? A NUKE DOWNTOWN TEL AVIV???)
What #2 said.
The only peace any human ever finds is the peace of the grave. IIRC, that was Plato’s observation about 2400 years or so ago.
Since then peace has come to be defined as a lack of war. Moving the goalposts again. As far as the Arab-Israeli conflict, it takes two to make peace. So long as the Arabs idea of peace is genocide against Jews, there won’t be peace. For some reason, Jews don’t like being the target of genocide. Experience perhaps?
Regardless, as long as the Arabs pretend to negotiate, there is no reason for the Jews to not pretend to negotiate. If I was negotiating for Israel, I would focus on Arabs adding Israel to their maps and publicly acknowledge Israel’s right to exist DAILY, in ALL media. In Arabic, Yiddish, English and French.
Right now the Arabs are waging a agi-prop offensive and it’s working much better then any of their many military offensives. Maybe if the Arbs are shown that their propaganda attack has no more chance then their military ones did, they might get serious. The first sign of them getting serious will be the background map on the evening news showing the state of Israel, AS IT EXISTS TODAY.
Until then both sides can continue to negotiate, between spasmodic outbursts of organized murder. Rational people understand that the negotiations won’t accomplish anything until the underlying conditions change. Fools will get their hopes up, but then again fools often do strange things.
The so called Palestinians,(really Arabs from Jordan and Egypt), already have a home. It is called Jordan, and they got kicked out of there for being the nice sweet individuals they are.
I suspect Israel knows the so called Palestinians are about to make more war. Yet, trying to talk peace shows the world,(again), it is not the Jews who are the problem. Of course, the world will blame the Jews anyway.
Let’s see, Netanyahu offers an olive branch and the “Palestinians” in their endless victim mode demand that “Israel do its part” to help the Palestinians to gain statehood with East Jerusalem as its capitol. Such progress!!
When will these apologists for Islam have seen enough?
A far more sober assessment of the same conference.
Islam has bloody borders — that’s an undisputable fact. Everywhere it has invaded, it sets about provoking and spreading itself and only military superiority has in the past stopped its progress. Israel is too small to sustain a hostile and alien nation within its borders. Population swap is the only answer. Otherwise, Islam will continue to keep on keeping on in its jihad against Israel and as we can now see everywhere — in future, the world.
If anyone is interested, there is far more accurate & realistic assessement
by a real expert on the Middle-East at Rubin Reports, the blog by Prof. Barry Rubin, ”Palestinian Prime Minister to Israeli Audience ….” which is well worth reading. Mr Rubin knows what he is talking about. Actually, looking through the Archives on this blog is pretty informative.
The chances of peace are ZERO.
There will be no ”peace” no matter what Israel does, no matter the concessions, with negotiations or without negotiations, with or without a Palestinian state. The Palestinians cannot accept the existence of ANY sovereign Jewish state within ANY borders.
#8 Barry Meislin.
Sorry, I just looked at the link & it’s the same article as I recommended.
#10 Terry, Eilat-Israel.
Keep tellin’ it like it is.