Israel Accepts Unarmed Palestinian State

Netanyahu's Announcement Seen By Many As Major Reversal, But Swiftly Rejected By Palestinians

(CBS/AP)  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed a Palestinian state beside Israel for the first time on Sunday, reversing himself under U.S. pressure but attaching conditions such as having no army that the Palestinians swiftly rejected.

A week after President Barack Obama's address to the Muslim world, Netanyahu said the Palestinian state would also have to recognize Israel as the Jewish state - essentially saying Palestinian refugees must give up the goal of returning to Israel.

With those conditions, he said, he could accept "a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside the Jewish state."

The West Bank-based Palestinian government dismissed the proposal.

"Netanyahu's speech closed the door to permanent status negotiations," senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said. "We ask the world not to be fooled by his use of the term Palestinian state because he qualified it. He declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel, said refugees would not be negotiated and that settlements would remain."

Netanyahu, in an address seen as his response to Mr. Obama, refused to heed the U.S. call for an immediate freeze of construction on lands Palestinians claim for their future state. He also said the holy city of Jerusalem must remain under Israeli sovereignty.

The White House said Obama welcomed the speech as an "important step forward."

Reaction among Palestinians was less enthusiastic reports. In their view, Netanyahu's speech isn't a startling reversal - it's a non-starter, reports CBS News correspondent Richard Roth.

But Netanyahu's carefully framed response to White House pressure to get the peace process moving won't upset most Israelis, according to a leading analyst of public opinion, who believes it may help Mr. Obama talk tough to the Palestinians, Roth reports.

An Israeli official told CBS News that Netanyahu had previewed the speech in a phone call to Vice President Biden, and expected a positive reaction from Washington. The negative reaction from Palestinians won't have been a surprise to Israelis either.

Netanyahu's address was a dramatic transformation for a man who was raised on a fiercely nationalistic ideology and has spent a two-decade political career criticizing peace efforts.

"I call on you, our Palestinian neighbors, and to the leadership of the Palestinian Authority: Let us begin peace negotiations immediately, without preconditions," he said, calling on the wider Arab world to work with him. "Let's make peace. I am willing to meet with you any time any place - in Damascus, Riyadh, Beirut and in Jerusalem."

(Left: An Israeli settler stands next to a poster, hung by an extremist right wing group, depicting President Obama wearing a traditional Arab headdress, near the settlement of Karmel, Sunday, June 14, 2009.)

Since assuming office in March, Netanyahu has been caught between American demands to begin peace talks with the Palestinians and the constraints of a hardline coalition. On Sunday, he appeared to favor Israel's all-important relationship with the U.S. at the risk of destabilizing his government.

But his call for establishing a Palestinian state was greeted with lukewarm applause among the audience at Bar-Ilan University, known as a bastion of the Israeli right-wing establishment.

As Netanyahu spoke, two small groups of protesters demonstrated at the university's entrance.

Several dozen hard-liners held up posters showing Obama wearing an Arab headdress and shouted slogans against giving up West Bank territory. Across from them, a few dozen dovish Israelis and foreign backers chanted slogans including "two states for two peoples" and "stop the occupation."

Police kept the two groups apart.

The Palestinians demand all of the West Bank as part of a future state, with east Jerusalem as their capital. Israel captured both areas in the 1967 Mideast war.

Netanyahu, leader of the hardline Likud Party, has always resisted withdrawing from these lands, for both security and ideological reasons. In his speech, he repeatedly made references to Judaism's connection to the biblical Land of Israel.

"Our right to form our sovereign state here in the land of Israel stems from one simple fact. The Land of Israel is the birthplace of the Jewish people," he said.

But Netanyahu also said that Israel must recognize that millions of Palestinians live in the West Bank, and continued control over these people is undesirable. "In my vision, there are two free peoples living side by side each with each other, each with its own flag and national anthem," he said.

Netanyahu has said he fears the West Bank could follow the path of the Gaza Strip - which the Palestinians also claim for their future state. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and Hamas militants now control the area, often firing rockets into southern Israel.

"In any peace agreement, the territory under Palestinian control must be disarmed, with solid security guarantees for Israel," he said.

"If we get this guarantee for demilitarization and necessary security arrangements for Israel, and if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people, we will be willing in a real peace agreement to reach a solution of a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside the Jewish state," he said.

Netanyahu became the latest in a series of Israeli hard-liners to soften their positions after assuming office. Earlier this decade, then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon led Israel out of Gaza before suffering a debilitating stroke. His successor, Ehud Olmert, spoke eloquently of the need to withdraw from the West Bank, though a corruption scandal a disastrous war in Lebanon prevented him from carrying out that vision.

Netanyahu gave no indication as to how much captured land he would be willing to relinquish. However, he ruled out a division of Jerusalem, saying, "Israel's capital will remain united."

On Washington's demand that Israel freeze construction in West Bank settlements, Netanyahu dug in, insisting that "there's a need to allow settlers to lead normal lives," Roth reports.

Nearly 300,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, in addition to 180,000 Israelis living in Jewish neighborhoods built in east Jerusalem. He also said that existing settlements should be allowed to grow - a position opposed by the U.S.

"We have no intention to build new settlements or expropriate land for expanding existing settlements. But there is a need to allow residents to lead a normal life. Settlers are not the enemy of the nation and are not the enemy of peace - they are our brothers and sisters," he said.

Netanyahu also said the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state. The Palestinians have refused to do so, fearing it would amount to giving up the rights of millions of refugees and their descendants and discriminate against Israel's own Arab minority.

Although the Palestinians have agreed to demilitarization under past peace proposals, Erekat rejected it, saying it would cement Israeli rule over them.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, another Palestinian official, called on the U.S. to challenge Netanyahu "to prevent more deterioration in the region."

"What he has said today is not enough to start a serious peace process," he added.

In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called the speech "racist" and called on Arab nations "form stronger opposition" toward Israel. Hamas ideology does not recognize a Jewish state in an Islamic Middle East and the group has sent dozens of suicide bombers into Israel.

Netanyahu also came under criticism from within his own government - a coalition of religious and nationalistic parties that oppose Palestinian independence.

Zevulun Orlev, a member of the Jewish Home Party, which represents Jewish settlers and other hard-liners, said Netanyahu's speech violated agreements struck when the government was formed. "I think the coalition needs to hold a serious discussion to see where this is headed," he told Israel Radio.

Asked about the disputed election in Iran that affirmed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's claim to power, Netanyahu said the Iranian threat looms large and in full force. He didn't say much but it’s safe to say he didn't think he had to, Roth reports.

Israelis have been saying that, politically, Ahmadinejad's re-election works in Netanyahu's favor, because the person he calls the biggest threat to peace is still in power.

[South-of-Heaven]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1090967.html


Such a great bunch of Allies....
Every one of the little drunkards is buying off of the U.S. Taxpayer..

[South-of-Heaven]

man there for a while i thougt it was ABC....
nop..

[ToolMangler1]

Iran Clamps Down On Protests, Press
As Election Demonstrations Continue, Ahmadinejad Defends Vote As "Real And Free"; Gov't Blocks Web Sites, Text Messaging


I am very glad to see that we are still allowed to post on a "FEW" things about the mid east. But Iran and CBS seem to have forbidden posting anything about Iran and the unrest over there, I smell "CENSORSHIP" Maybe even Government sponsored censorship about Iran...
What are they scared of??? True opinions???

[YrSoWrong]

Freedom exists where there is a government ruled by the majority with respect for the minority -- where individual rights are confirmed by private property rights -- where the religious whims of some are not imposed on others ...

In the absence of these qualifications, there would never be a free Palestine, just as the rest of the Near East would never be free.

[South-of-Heaven]

A free Palestine is possible.
and soon one would hope....

[caligula1--2008]

< Definitely no resemblance to the type of government soon to be installed in Gaza (formerly Egypt) and in the West Bank (formerly Jordan). >

Egypt was offered Gaza as long as it was demilitarized. They don't want it OR the people in it as it would be a further drain on their economy. As for Jordon, they SHOT "Palestinians" trying to escape to Jordon after Israel RECAPTURED (Yes, it was originally Israeli, not Jordanian territory) the West Bank in 1967. They don't want them either. So you have a whole pile of Arabs that were crowded into Israeli lands after Arab victories in the 1948 attempted genocide of most of what was left of the worlds Jewish population outside the United States in an attempt to "annex by colonization" which, if a Palestinian state IS created, would have worked in a territorial sense, but KNOWING that the only reason for the creation of that state would be so the Arab entities involved, mostly the PLO, could continue the fight to drive Israel into the sea without directly implicating any other Arab county. "Palestine" is and continues to be one of the largest frauds perpetuated on the world. There is NO SUCH THING as a "Palestinian" outside of the broader definition of anyone who lives in that territory of what was formerly part of Syria, formerly part of the Ottoman Empire, formerly part of the Byzantine Empire, formerly part of the Roman Empire, and formerly the part of the earliest known literate occupants, the Empire of Judea. . . . You get the point. And if you don't, here are some quotes to remember :

In an interview with the Dutch newspaper "Trau" (March 31, 1977), PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein said, "The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism."



"You do not represent Palestine as much as we do. Never forget this one point: There is no such thing as a Palestinian people, there is no Palestinian entity, there is only Syria. You are an integral part of the Syrian people, Palestine is an integral part of Syria. Therefore it is we, the Syrian authorities, who are the true representatives of the Palestinian people".
- Syrian dictator Hafez Assad to the PLO leader Yassir Arafat -



There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable from Jordanians (another recent invention), Syrians, Iraqis, etc. Keep in mind that the Arabs control 99.9 percent of the Middle East lands. Israel represents one-tenth of one percent of the landmass. But that''s too much for the Arabs. They want it all. And that is ultimately what the fighting in Israel is about today... No matter how many land concessions the Israelis make, it will never be enough".
- Joseph Farah, "Myths of the Middle East"


Palestinians are the newest of all the peoples on the face of the Earth, and began to exist in a single day by a kind of supernatural phenomenon that is unique in the whole history of mankind, as it is witnessed by Walid Shoebat, a former PLO terrorist that acknowledged the lie he was fighting for and the truth he was fighting against:

"Why is it that on June 4th 1967 I was a Jordanian and overnight I became a Palestinian?"
"We did not particularly mind Jordanian rule. The teaching of the destruction of Israel was a definite part of the curriculum, but we considered ourselves Jordanian until the Jews returned to Jerusalem. Then all of the sudden we were Palestinians - they removed the star from the Jordanian flag and all at once we had a Palestinian flag".
"When I finally realized the lies and myths I was taught, it is my duty as a righteous person to speak out".

[caligula1--2008]

< The Israeli's hold the key to peace, which will take a lot of courage. They need to realize that the vast majority of Palestanians are not Hamas or terrorists but people wanting to live their lives and have better lives for their children. >

So you want them to realize a fiction? Frankly the majority of Palestinians, given a chance to do it and get away with it, would kill as many Jews as they possibly could. Arabs in general and so called "Palestinians" (really just Arabs under another name) think the only solution to the state of Israel is total conquest and pushing the "Dirty Jew" into the Med before there is a solution to this particular "problem" in the Middle East, and in the long term they will NEVER give up on this goal. Note that the PLO still hasn't eliminated the line in their charter stating that their long term goal is the destruction of Israel even though they've made mouth noises saying they'll accept a two state solution. Sure, they'll accept one, but only so they can create a launching ground for an invasion of the Israeli state that can't be linked to any of the Arab states that are "supporting their struggle". That's why they rejected the idea of a - Palestinian state without a military (and note, no army doesn't mean no firearms, it means no heavy weapons like tanks and artillery, no air force except air rescue and police helicopters, etc).

Wipe the mud from your eyes. The Arab goal is and always has been the destruction of Israel ever since the UN created the Israeli state in 1948. Since then EVERY major Arab Israeli war has been started or provoked by Arab states, or more recently radical groups directly funded by Arab states. That's the sad sorry truth of the matter.

[YrSoWrong]

What does rule by a theocratic police state have to do with an election? Plenty. It says that a nation has a ruling class whose authority does not derive from the will of the people. It says that the people are not under law, but under the subjective whim of rulers who cannot be opposed because their authority is supernatural. It says that the advocates of such a regime are corrupt and, in the West -- where republics have existed for centuries -- morally depraved, the very definition of psychopathy.

[YrSoWrong]

Such simple questions, and such evasions. Perhaps the Jihad method of questioning produces swifter results, and yet none of their supporters on the cbs blog would agree to that sort of lie-detector test.

[YrSoWrong]

They are the many different beautiful colors of a police state. American taxpayers who support the Israelis for sharing Western values during wartime also bribe despots and lunatics to be slightly less despotic, but the lunacy remains. Meanwhile, the UN Resolutions that enabled Egypt to run Gaza and Jordan to run the West Bank as provinces of their respective nations? Because it appears there was less violence when this was the arrangement, and there were fewer emo boys who grieved about the situation.

[hungry1968-15]

BTW they've fired on the crowd in Tehran. Do you suppose this is this work of ZIONISTS? Perhaps an international conspiracy of ZIONISTS? Certainly not the work of good Muslims who only want to keep their mystics in power. Definitely no resemblance to the type of government soon to be installed in Gaza (formerly Egypt) and in the West Bank (formerly Jordan). Oh, it would be fun to laugh at certain opinions on this blog, except that common decency prohibits taunting the slow.
Posted by YrSoWrong at 12:15 PM : Jun 15, 2009






What does zionism and the atrocities committed against the Palestinians have to do with Iran and their elections?

They're all the same color, so their problems are all the same?

[hungry1968-15]

We should wait at Suha Arafat's lovely Paris apartment. Your tax money paid for it.
Posted by YrSoWrong at 12:03 PM : Jun 15, 2009





Our money only went to the Palestinians?

[YrSoWrong]

BTW they've fired on the crowd in Tehran. Do you suppose this is this work of ZIONISTS? Perhaps an international conspiracy of ZIONISTS? Certainly not the work of good Muslims who only want to keep their mystics in power. Definitely no resemblance to the type of government soon to be installed in Gaza (formerly Egypt) and in the West Bank (formerly Jordan). Oh, it would be fun to laugh at certain opinions on this blog, except that common decency prohibits taunting the slow.

[YrSoWrong]

We should wait at Suha Arafat's lovely Paris apartment. Your tax money paid for it.

[YrSoWrong]

Let's reference the UN resolutions authorizing the West Bank as part of Jordan or Gaza as part of Egypt. Can't find the page, little Jihadist? We're waiting.

[chantalt]

Gaza= Hamas=terror.
Israel=power= ENVY
as simple as that!
so were are the 4 Billions + arafat got the last years of his life to help HIS people ? it's in arafat widow swiss bank accounts for her own purpose SHOPPING!
who is blowing up innocent civilians all over the world for the last 45 years HAMAS, PLO, JIHHAD whatever they call themselves depends of the season!
who is behind blowing up the towers:1/ in 1993! Muslims
who blow up the towers for good and ruined the world economy in 2001 Bin Ladin a JEW? no AGAIN A Muslim etc....after 2000 years Israel got their land back i think it's fair enough! what did the others do with that land for 2000 years NOTHING!

[hungry1968-15]

Wow...Bin Laden said that !

I guess I'll just have to follow him because he is just your kind of guy and he must be speaking the truth !
Posted by earth562 at 9:03 AM : Jun 15, 2009






Oh right, right.

I see your train of thought.

He must be lying to us about why he attacked us on 9/11, because he doesn't want to make us mad.

[hungry1968-15]

and the Nazis supplied the Jews with plenty of oil,gasoline and lots of food.

Did you get your history book at a discount price ?
Posted by earth562 at 8:56 AM : Jun 15, 2009






You've got to be the most drugged up person in the world, if you somehow think that the Palestinians are even getting the NECESSITIES, much less LUXURIES!!!!

[hungry1968-15]

I din't know that they had grocery stores stocke to the hilt with vegetables and meat in the Warsaw Ghetto ?

and they also had HDTVs and lots of cars too ?

My, you must take some pretty good drugs. Do you also see flying pigs when you wake up every day ?
Posted by earth562 at 8:53 AM : Jun 15, 2009





This is outrageous!!!

Israel REGULARLY cuts off the food, water, utilities, and needed medical supplies, to the area, yet you think that the residents of Gaza are living the life of luxury?!?!?!

You are brainwashed beyond repair!!!!

[YrSoWrong]

Let's reference the UN resolutions authorizing the West Bank as part of Jordan or Gaza as part of Egypt. Until that issue is addressed, this blog is just pimping for Jihad.