Netanyahu Speech: Israel's Hard-Liners Embrace Speech, Palestinians Enraged

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian officials sought U.S and European help to salvage foundering peacemaking on Monday after tough terms laid out by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but they stopped short of refusing to resume negotiations.

Palestinian disappointment was echoed in capitals across the Arab world, where leaders accused Netanyahu of setting more obstacles in the path of an already stymied peace process.

Laying out his Mideast policy in a speech Sunday, Netanyahu bent to U.S. pressure and backed down on decades of opposition to Palestinian statehood. He invited the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world to resume peace talks.

However, he removed from the negotiating agenda the fate of Palestinian refugees displaced by Israel's 1948 creation and said Israel would retain sovereignty over all of Jerusalem _ two issues previous Israeli governments had agreed to negotiate.

Netanyahu also said he would keep building in Jewish settlements on land claimed by the Palestinians, despite a U.S. demand for a complete freeze. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he would not resume talks unless Israel honored previous pledges to halt construction.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Netanyahu's speech was so riddled with conditions that he "left nothing for negotiations."

But he said the Palestinians didn't want to be cast in the role of rejectionists and didn't rule out the resumption of talks that broke off late last year.

"Netanyahu wants to put us in a situation where he looks like he offered something, and we said no," Erekat said. "Netanyahu's speech was very clear. He rejects the two-state solution."

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Erekat said he contacted American, European and Russian mediators in the wake of the speech and urged them to hold Israel _ along with the Palestinians _ to their obligations under previous peace plans. Israel is required to halt settlement construction, while Palestinians must rein in militants.

Netanyahu's move came after months of pressure from Washington to endorse Palestinian statehood, as successive Israeli governments before his have done. "There are new international circumstances that demanded I make a decision," Netanyahu told a party meeting on Monday. "This is the policy I chose."

In Washington, Robert Gibbs, a spokesman for President Barack Obama, welcomed Netanyahu's conditional acceptance of Palestinian statehood as an "important step forward."

But he suggested more needs to be done, saying the U.S. would work with all sides to make sure they fulfill the obligations "necessary to achieve a two-state solution."

The European Union also said Netanyahu's endorsement was a step in the right direction.

At the same time, Netanyahu's nationalist tone, tough conditions and vague language on peacemaking appeared to avert a crisis in his hawkish coalition, where there was strong opposition to the U.S. pressure.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the most powerful hard-liner in Netanyahu's government, said the prime minister's speech outlined "the balance between our aspirations for peace and the aspiration for security."

In his speech, Netanyahu called on Arab leaders to meet with him "any time, any place."

But he pointedly avoided mentioning an Arab peace initiative that offers to trade normalized ties with the entire Arab world for a complete Israeli withdrawal from lands captured in 1967, a demand Israel rejects.

He demanded Palestinians recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state _ another way of saying Palestinian refugees must give up their hopes of returning to lost homes inside Israel.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a key mediator between Israel and the Palestinians, said that demand "will further complicate the situation and scuttle any chance of peace," according to the state news agency MENA.

In Jordan, the pro-government Al-Rai daily ran an editorial titled, "Netanyahu offered rotten merchandise. Nobody will buy it."

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman described Netanyahu's speech as "intransigent when it comes to dealing with peace or regarding the solution for Palestinian refugees." Saudi Arabia's state-run Al-Nadwa daily said "every paragraph of Netanyahu's speech makes us more pessimistic."

The Arab League's undersecretary general for Palestinian affairs, Mohammed Sobeih, said the speech might satisfy "extremists in Israel" but was "too far from what peace needs."

The Syrian news agency published a call on world powers to force Israel to stop settlement construction. In Beirut, Hezbollah, another bitter enemy of Israel, said the speech disappointed "so-called moderate Arabs" who were hoping for peace with Israel.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who brokered the landmark 1979 treaty between Egypt and Israel, said his experience in the region shows that no differences are insurmountable. But he criticized key points in the speech _ Netanyahu's intention to keep all of Jerusalem and his demand for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, which Carter said would make it hard for Obama to rally Arab support.

Carter reserved his harshest words for settlements. "If Israeli continues to expand the settlements," he said, "then the prospects for peace will be greatly diminished, if not made almost impossible."

_____

Associated Press writers Amy Teibel, Ben Hubbard and Joseph Marks contributed from Jerusalem. Omar Sinan contributed from Cairo, Bassem Mroue contributed from Beirut and Donna Abu-Nasr contributed from Riyadh.

Comments

[seanseamour]

In my opinion PM Netanyahu's intervention yesterday was a disgrace in as much as it reaffirmed all the issues he knew were unacceptable to the Palestinians, its diktat leaves no room for dialog. It illustrates once again that certain factions in Israel, to say the least, will never accept a road to peace. We support Israel's right to a state, our tax dollars contribute to that effort and we have alienated much of the Arab world and brought wrath upon us for standing by Israel. But to watch and fund this continued occupation is unacceptable, to watch and fund Israel' repeating the history of its people upon others is untenable. For those that have watch his modus operandi over the years he may next incite yet another intifada to maintain a hard line, but what I fear the most is retaliation upon our administration, for the arrogance they perceive we had to push for implementation of a policy the entire civilized world demands.

[dragonlady620]

I doubt that most Americans realize just how much money Israel is getting from the US:
http://www.wrmea.com/html/us_aid_to_israel.htm
Those figures do not include the increased aid from Bush.
This is also relevant:
http://newspirates.com/?p=2663
A significant portion of our tax dollars are being used for this, so we are in effect financing three wars, not two.
I see absolutely no reason for this to continue, at least not on the scale that it is happening.

[zaz33]

It;s been obvious to many of us that Israel will never accept a two state solution. The Israeli government more than ever represents the settlers and the "greater Israel" advocates. Currently the majority of Israel Jews still want a two state solution. But with more and more moderate Jews leaving Israel the influence of this group is diminishing.

In my opinion the Palistinians should end all resistance with the exception of peacefull resistance, The hand made rockets are basically just an expression of frustration, do very little damage, and only gives Israel an excuse to over react .and use it for exagerated PR.

From the Palistinian point of view. Concede that a two state solution is not possible especially with the continued expansion of settlements and a refusal to dismantle the deep ones, Let demographics and world opinion be the tactic. Demographics will eventually end the Jewish state of Israel. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

Hopefully, until the Palistinian state emerges there wll be less suffering and fewer deaths.

[arle]

What people are overlooking is the longer view -- this expansionism isn't going to stop at the Jordan River or the Sinai border.

[zaz33]

arle - possible

Isael cannot exist on the water resources within the 67 borders. 30% now comes from the West Bank and another 30% from the Golan Heights. Israel also covets the Litani river in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah is preventing Israel from invading and occupying Southern Lebanon. Iran. to some degree. supplies Hezbollah with weapons.

Connect the dots.

Water is one of the MAJOR issues.

[omobob]

So they steal your home, your kids livv in the garage and your across the road behind a barbed wire fence and you can’t defend yourself counting on the mercy of the thieves to feed and look after your children and you’re supposed to say what? Thank you Bibi? He knows what the answer is before his lips started moving.

[CharlesofPortAngeles]

I don't expect many on the Right will appreciate the subtle diplomacy Obama and his representatives, applied to get this result. Pierce thru the din of flailling outrage at Netanyahu's position and the Palestinian response and you'll see a simple ante in a poker game that has resumed, at long last. The simple fact that Netanyahu has made the statements agreeing to a Pal state is a point at which negotiations are possible. Refusal to put that 'on the table' made negotiations for peace impossible.
As Scarborough himself said this morning, Obama is a pragmatist, and I'd add, the Rightwing rantings of weakness that attempt to characterize BO as an apologist are just noise.

[NedroidPrime]

"I think what was presented yesterday reflects a broad Israeli consensus," Yaalon told Army Radio. "I think it was important to juxtapose the broad Israeli consensus with the Palestinian rejectionism, which we exposed yesterday."

Wow, they are still trying to paint themselves as the victim, and the Pals as evil...

When can we finally stop sending them aid? We could use that money here at home...

[arle]

It's the same circus all over again. The Israelis make impossible demands, call it "the best deal on the table" and when the Palestinians reject it, Israel walks away from the table saying "See? They won't negotiate. Call in the air strikes!" If Obama doesn't want to have his foreign policy run over roughshod by Netanyahu, then Obama's going to have to be the one to take the hard line, for once, and /tell/ Israel they /must/ conform to international law.

[Robert Medina]

How do you negotiate when one side imposes unacceptable conditions?

[dragonlady620]

Why should Israel negotiate when they have always had the unqualified support of the US? This speech was little more than lip service to the peace process.

[LincolnParkChicago]

"Netanyahu ruled out sharing Jerusalem and made no mention of uprooting Jewish settlements built in the West Bank. Instead, he said existing settlements should be allowed to expand while negotiations proceed."

"existing settlements should be allowed to expand while negotiations proceed"

More delay, more settlement expansion. Negotiations in bad faith until the parties dry up and blow away.

Nothing new here. This was predictable.

[zaz33]

Abbas stated recently that he would not negotiate if Israel did no end settlement expansion.

Abbas is a US / Israeli puppet, so it will be interesting to see what happens.