Netanyahu's Deal: Bushehr for Settlements

It hasn't taken Benjamin Netanyahu long to show his true colors by creating new hoops for the Palestinians to jump through in order to resume peace negotiations with Israel. The Israeli Prime Minister has reportedly told U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, that the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a "Jewish state" before it will discuss establishing an independent Palestinian state.

This comes at a time when according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz:

The Obama administration is preparing a Middle East peace process that will include simultaneous bilateral talks between Israel and the Palestinians, and between Israel and Syria. The plan is based on the Arab peace initiative that offers establishing normal relations between Israel and Arab League states in exchange for withdrawing from the occupied territories and establishing a Palestinian state.

President Barack Obama is expected to propose a "security package," including demilitarization of the territories from which Israel will withdraw and the option of stationing a multinational force in the territories for years.

A new round of Middle East diplomacy will start in the White House later this month when President Barack Obama meets with Jordan's King Abdullah. It is expected that
that PA President Mahmoud Abbas will be invited next, followed by the Israeli Prime Minister.

Benjamin Netanyahu is not the first Israeli prime minister to throw the "Jewish state" monkey wrench in the path of the creation of a Palestinian state. Ahead of the Annapolis conference in 2007, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared that he did not intend "to compromise in any way over the issue of the Jewish state. This will be a condition for our recognition of a Palestinian state." Nevertheless, he went to Annapolis and has made his strongest push for a Palestinian state, albeit on his way out from office when he said, "If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights, then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished."

Unlike Ehud Olmert, Benjamin Netanyahu is more concerned about the threat from Iran and less about the demographic Palestinian threat. He and his circle of Israeli nationalists, such as his foreign minister, Avigador Lieberman, believe that the biggest threat is Iran and have created a linkage between Israel's willingness to make advances on the Palestinian track and their expectations of the Americans to address the Iranian threat. Basically, Benjamin Netanyahu wants guarantees from the U.S. President to defuse the Iranian threat, including the nuclear reactor in Bushehr, in exchange for evacuating some Israeli settlements in the West Bank to make room for a Palestinian state.
Bushehr in exchange for some West Bank settlements.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration believes that a breakthrough in the peace process between Israel and the Arab states would restrain Tehran's influence in the region and contribute to the diplomatic effort to block its nuclear ambitions.

Will President Barack Obama fall for Benjamin Netanyahu's new strategy?

Many Palestinians believe that this is Obama's time to assert America's new role in the Middle East as an honest broker. Solving the Iranian problem is not going to help bring about a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue; rather, it is the other way around.

Jamal Dajani produces the Mosaic Intelligence Report on Link TV.

Comments

[4MARLA]

NO MORE ENVOYS...STOP WASTING OUR TIME AND MONEY...JUST STOP GIVING OUR TAX DOLLARS TO ISRAEL

[joz22]

I think that Barack Obama will be the US president to deliver a peace agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis. We may actually see a finality to this troubeling situation in his first term.

[almazza98]

Not if Israel has anything to do with it, which unfortunately, they have everything to do with it.

[justice2008]

The Palestinians should drop the idea of a two-state solution and ask for equal voting rights just like South Africa.

[cohen238765]

Israel is a Jewish state...Get it!

[newsjunkie5]

Oh I (WE) got it!

There is no "two-state solution" in sight for the Palestinians. Israel will never REALLY allow for this.

[leonardox1]

1 out of 5 Israelis are Palestinians! But if you talk about the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean then the Palestinians are the majority...Get it!

[jad114]

No one you guys are still at war for the past 60 years! The Holy Land belongs to everyone: Jews, Christians, Muslims and even Atheists! GET IT!

[almazza98]

No, actually I don't get it.

[LincolnParkChicago]

Do you understand what you are saying and that it is the epitome of racism? I remember a time when the Israeli government denied that Israel was or would ever be a "Jewish state" as opposed to a true democracy. Now it is openly stated. In 1985, such notions as a "Jewish state" were officially discouraged by Israel. Now, with Lieberman, they are policy.
Kahanism is a term, named after controversial Israeli Rabbi Meir Kahane. It refers to an organization and, more generally, to other movements or groups that share a belief in the fundamental tenets of its ideology. Chief among these is the idea that the State of Israel should defend itself against Arab and Nazi enemies, and thus should accord full citizenship exclusively to Jews, and that all gentiles should be accorded equal rights except voting provided they accept Jewish religious law. Since 1985, the State of Israel has outlawed political parties espousing Kahane's ideology as being racist, and forbids their participating in the Israeli government. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahanism
Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman was once a member of the outlawed far-right party Kach, Haaretz learned yesterday. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1061350.html

[newsjunkie5]

Are you serious?

I hope not.

[newsjunkie5]

I feel as if that is ALWAYS Israel's policy...to stall peace negotiatio­ns...alway­s placing yet another hurdle in the face of the Palestinians.

[leonardox1]

Also Sharon proclaimed that the Israeli settlements would be "irreversible facts on the ground," which would minimize the potential for the establishment in the future of a Palestinian state on the West Bank.

[newsjunkie5]

Of course he did.

Israeli leaders always seem to find a reason for "negotiations" to be halted. There is always a reason or some excuse and no one holds them accountable anyways so what does it really matter in the end.

[leonardox1]

This is nothing short of another Israeli trick to delay the creation of the Palestinian state. Former PM Itzhak Shamir orchestrated this policy of delaying peace talks in order to create new facts on the ground dates back to the Madrid conference.

[newsjunkie5]

Israel always seems to stall the negotiations.

There is always an excuse.

Always a reason.

[cohen238765]

You got it all wrong... if Arabs did not attack Israel, there would not have been a need for negotiations.