President Shimon Peres tells Washington Post prime minister’s agreement to two-state solution, freezing of settlements connotes shift from right-wing ideology; adds that Netanyahu is unfairly portrayed as an extremist in US (full article…)

Netanyahu: PA must recognize Israel as Jewish state for there to be peace (full article…)

Didn’t he just say that there weren’t going to be preconditions? It’s not fun exposing Netanyahu’s contradictions, because they occur so frequently.

I have a precondition for you… Since you are infatuated with the whole “right to exist” (something no other state has, by the way) why not recognize the Palestinians’ “right to exist” as a sign of reciprocity. No, of course you won’t.

“We are facing very large challenges. The first is renewing peace talks; they should be renewed without any preconditions,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a Likud faction meeting on Monday.
(full article…)

He added, “However, the peace process will not go forward unless the Goldstone Report is dropped. That’s our only precondition, even if in principle we agree that there should be no preconditions…”

During the national election campaign in 1996, when Netanyahu was first elected prime minister, Chabad publicly supported him with the slogan, “Bibi is good for the Jews.” Netanyahu still has strong ties with Chabad. (full article…)

No less demagogic was his attack on the Iranian regime. They shoot demonstrators there, he protested vehemently. As if they don’t do that in our Bil’in and Na’alin.

Then came the kicker: Operation Cast Lead was a pinpoint attack. Israel telephoned thousands of people to tell them to leave their homes. Where to, Mr. Prime Minister? Into the sea? He said the IDF, which killed nearly 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, exhibited unprecedented restraint. (full article…)

Nonetheless, it was disappointing that the Obama administration felt it had to denounce the report within days of its release, despite Goldstone’s impeccable credentials (former member of South Africa’s Constitutional Court and chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for Bosnia and Rwanda) and his strong Zionist convictions. Israeli PM Netanyahu hasn’t been doing Obama any favors of late, and the release of the report would have been a golden opportunity for Obama to play a little hardball and remind him that stiffing your principal patron has a price. And the Administration didn’t even have to endorse the report; all they had to do was refrain from criticizing it. (full article…)

Why is Netanyahu defying Obama so openly? Because he has long been committed to the dream of a “greater Israel,” and the only Palestinian state he might accept would be an archipelago of disconnected enclaves under de facto Israeli control. (full article…)

“Any comparison of Israel’s fight on terror with recent conflicts in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc. immediately shows that Israel holds itself to the highest ethical standard.” (full article…)

Three days after the U.S. administration criticized the decision of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to authorize the construction of hundreds of new housing units in settlements, the Israel Lands Administration published tenders for the construction of 486 apartments in the neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev in East Jerusalem. (more…)

Madonna is reportedly spending the Sabbath eve at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home. (more…)

Netanyahu appears to be suffering from confusion and paranoia. He is convinced that the media are after him, that his aides are leaking information against him and that the American administration wants him out of office. Two months after his visit to Washington, he is still finding it difficult to communication normally with the White House. To appreciate the depth of his paranoia, it is enough to hear how he refers to Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod, Obama’s senior aides: as “self-hating Jews.” (more…)

Netanyahu noted that the question for the Palestinian Authority running the West Bank, where he is seeking to promote the Palestinian economy as a cornerstone of a future peace deal, is “do they progress economically like Dubai, or do they go backwards like Gaza?” (more…)

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi raised the settlement issue in a meeting with Netanyahu in Rome yesterday, telling him that settlement construction may become an obstacle for peace, and must be stopped. (more…)

Who cares what this clown has to say about the settlements? The guy has the moral integrity of Tony Soprano… In fact, I prefer the neo-fascists in the Israeli government.

In his speech last Sunday, the prime minister failed to address the continual growth of Israeli settlements on the occupied West Bank, where close to 300,000 Israeli settlers live. (more…)

East Jerusalem is on the Palestinian side of the Green Line (notwithstanding Israel’s illegal annexation of it) and the number of settlers expands to approximately 500,000 when you account for that. I’ve noticed recently that the media (on both sides) consistently ignores this fact.

If either party has a claim on protection from the other side’s violence, the Palestinians surely have the more reasonable claim. They have suffered by far the most violence in the long conflict. And Israel will certainly keep a massive margin of military superiority no matter what the future brings. Imagine the United States insisting that Cuba or Haiti must be demilitarized because its army might threaten the very existence of America. That’s how absurd this Israeli fear seems to most Palestinians. (more…)

Once again, most Israelis can snuggle up around what appears to be a daring and generous offer, but what is in fact, as usual, a compromise between the anxieties, the weakness and the self-righteousness of the center just-to-the-right and the center a-little-left. But what a great distance between them and the harsh demands of reality, as well as the legitimate needs and rightful claims of the Palestinians, now accepted by most of the world, including the United States. (more…)

Little wonder the Palestinians sounded sorely disappointed: Netanyahu gave no commitment to end the occupation, reiterated Israel’s determination to retain the whole of Jerusalem as its “united capital”, rejected any possibility of a compromise on Palestinian refugees, and even had fulsome praise for the Jewish settlers in the West Bank whom he called “Israeli pioneers”. (more…)

In addition to the relatively new condition (i.e., something Ben Gurion or Rabin never demanded) that the Palestnians accept not only recognize Israel’s existence (something the PLO already did back in 1988), but also recognize it as “the state of the Jewish people.” Moreover, after saying that neither side should “threaten its neighbor’s security and existence,” he insisted that the Palestinians agree to permanent state of abject vulnerability. Specifically, once the Palestinians agree to have no army, no control of their air space, and to forever forswear military treaties — then Israel “will agree to a real peace agreement.” (more…)

Netanyahu adopted the language of the day before yesterday. No Palestinian people, rather a “Palestinian population” that lives in Judea and Samaria. He invoked the infamous lexicon of Golda Meir, not of occupation rather “Israeli presence” in the West Bank.

There was also the repeated flight from the subject of final borders, the lack of even superficial reference to the road map peace plan, the repetition of “Jerusalem forever undivided,” the repeated claim that “they started it,” and the ridiculous, excessive demand that Palestinians recognize the Jewish state by one who has failed to recognize the Palestinians as a people. (more…)

This speech was nothing new or interesting on Netanyahu’s behalf. The man is a racist and his speech reflected this very clearly. It was aimed simply at reassuring his fellow extremists in Israel (and in the settlements) that he is not about to “sell-out” to Washington. I won’t go into his ridiculous distortions of history because the are easily refuted by anyone with the most basic appreciation for the facts.

The thrust of his speech had to do with the Palestinians recognizing Israel—not merely as a state with an inherent right to exist (as Israel had previously demanded), but as a specifically Jewish state with a right to exist. The second point of his speech had to do with his vision for a Palestinian state, namely a demilitarized enclave subordinate to Israeli security needs.

To the first point, this is fluff. Israel is unprepared to recognized the West Bank as a specifically Muslim or Palestinian entity (and it shouldn’t in any case). But Israel cannot bring itself to recognize the basic right to Palestinian existence even without silly ethnic or religious predicates. So demanding the Palestinian leadership to recognize Israel as a specifically Jewish state is intended simply to undermine peace negotiations by precluding discussion over the right to return for the 1948 refugees. After all, why should Israel negotiate over refugees if the Palestinians have themselves granted legitimacy to Jewish apartheid? So on the issue of recognition, Netanyahu has only further radicalized Israel’s position. (more…)

The prime minister’s declaration that Jerusalem will remain he “undivided capital” of Israel – only Israel – slammed the door before the entire Muslim world. And his Hebron is solely the city of the Jewish patriarchs; the Arabs have no such rights at all. The Palestinians can have a state, but only if those foreign invaders show us they know how to eat with a fork and knife. Actually, without a knife. (more…)

On Monday, Mr. Netanyahu said Israel “cannot freeze life in the settlements,” calling the American demand “unreasonable.” (more…)

He added, “But we sure as hell will continue freezing life in Gaza!”

“During April four Palestinians, including two boys, were killed by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and another 145 were injured by Israeli soldiers and settlers. The number of Palestinians injured rose by 40 percent compared with the 2008 monthly average,” the report says. “We have noticed a significant increase in the incidents of both settler and soldier violence against Palestinian civilians since the new Israeli government took power at the beginning of the year,” says Ronen Shimoni from B’Tselem. “This is probably related to an increase in settlement activity in the West Bank as the rightist government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tries to establish facts on the ground,” Shimoni told IPS. (more…)

Obama has told Netanyahu firmly that Israel must stop building settlements on expropriated Palestinian land in the West Bank, but such words have been uttered by the president’s predecessors. Unless these statements are followed by decisive action–perhaps to limit American subsidies to Israel–there’s no reason to believe the lip service that failed in the past will suddenly be more effective. (more…)

“That SOB doesn’t want a deal,” growled Mr Clinton at a particularly frustrating juncture in diplomacy. It remains to be seen whether—or how fast—Mr Obama may come to the same conclusion. (more…)

One night at a dinner party in Jerusalem in 1977, I heard a young Israeli talking about the Arabs in terms which chilled my blood. “In the next war,” he said, “we’ve got to get the Palestinians out of the West Bank for good.”…Now, suddenly, I found myself meeting Israelis committed to the creation of a greater Israel embracing the West Bank, who were utterly heedless of the fate of its inhabitants. The Palestinians were perceived as losers, a mere incidental impediment to the fulfilment of Israel’s historic territorial destiny. By a curious quirk, that young Israeli whom I heard enthuse about emptying the West Bank of Arabs was Binyamin Netanyahu, today his country’s prime minister. (more…)

The Obama administration is expecting a clash with Netanyahu over his refusal to support the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. (more…)

For it will rapidly become plain that his alternative ideas—giving Palestinians “economic independence”, for instance, without an actual state—are rubbish. (more…)

Ayoob Kara won’t present these dilemmas to the Jewish public. Even if he is appointed to a post in the Netanyahu government, he must remain right-wing and “loyal,” to the liking of Avigdor Lieberman. Kara, a hawk and reserves officer who declares his complete loyalty to the state and Likud, does not view himself as a Palestinian like most Arab citizens in Israel. Yet despite these differences, he promises that he will faithfully represent the entire Arab public. (more…)

Rather than ending the occupation, Netanyahu has proposed an “economic peace” that would seek to normalize and better manage it. Instead of a viable Palestinian state, his vision extends no further than a series of disconnected cantons with limited self-rule. (more…)

I don’t know if anyone caught this, but even as Benjamin Netanyahu was pledging his support for the continuation of peace talks and declaring Israel a “partner for peace”, he reached a secret agreement with neo-fascist Avigdor Lieberman to expand the Israeli super-settlement of Ma’ale Adumim by 3,000 housing units.

The ultra-nationalist Jewish marchers had two immediate purposes: to commemorate 20 years since their late leader Rabbi Meir Kahane raised a flag on the same spot (a year later Kahane was shot and killed in New York by an Islamic activist), and to demonstrate support for practical policies espoused by his heirs. One of them has just been elected to the Knesset on the ticket of the National Union, which won four seats and was even considered by Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu for inclusion in his coalition. They belong to the fascist branch of the Israeli Right but today their ideas are mainstream right and have gained an aura of respectability among Jewish Israelis. (more…)

To form the kind of center-right government Mr. Netanyahu says he would like to administer, he needs the Kadima party as a moderating force. (more…)

Netanyahu’s version of “center-right” (and the Christian Science Monitor’s apparently) is not bombing Palestinians into submission, but rather increasing land expropriation and settlement expansion. Oh, and not requiring Israeli Arab citizens to swear loyalty oaths to the state. How moderate of Netanyahu.

The man who is set to become Israel’s chief diplomat is known for many things, but not his talent for diplomacy. Words like compromise or consideration have been absent from his vocabulary so far. When then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon proposed releasing 350 Palestinian prisoners in 2003, Lieberman uttered one of his notorious sentences: “It would be better to drown these prisoners in the Dead Sea.” (more…)

We must not be led astray in this election campaign and consider both Livni and Barak as moderates, in contrast to the “extremist” Netanyahu. This is a deception. Kadima and Labor, the center and left-wing parties, have led Israel to two awful wars within two years. Netanyahu has yet to go to war once. True, he speaks more radically than the other two, but so far it has only been words, while the “moderates” have taken radical, aggressive action. (more…)

“I have no intention of building new settlements in the West Bank,” Netanyahu told Blair in a meeting Sunday. “But like all the governments there have been until now, I will have to meet the needs of natural growth in the population. I will not be able to choke the settlements.” (more…)

Feiglin said Netanyahu’s campaign against him proved that “Bibi is under pressure because he’s worried that one day I’ll replace him and lead the Likud and the country.” (more…)

Three polls released since the Likud primary all point to an emerging trend: the Likud, even with Moshe Feiglin – maybe precisely because of Feiglin – is increasing its lead over Kadima. Kadima is slipping, even as Labor rises. (more…)

“It might harm our chances to win the election because he and his group are very different from the Likud,” said Yuval Steinitz, a Likud Knesset Member and Netanyahu loyalist before the primary. “Their positions are very much to the right of the Likud.” (more…)

Two documents appeared side by side in Haaretz last week, on November 21: a giant advertisement from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the results of a public opinion poll.The proximity was accidental, but to the point. The PLO ad sets out the details of the 2002 Saudi peace offer, decorated with the colorful flags of the 22 Arab and the 35 other Muslim countries which have endorsed the offer.

The public opinion poll predicts a landslide victory for Likud, which opposes every single word of the Saudi proposal.

The PLO ad is a first of its kind. At long last, the PLO leaders have decided to address the Israeli people directly.

The ad discloses to the Israeli population the exact terms of the all-Arab peace offer: full recognition of the State of Israel by all Arab and Muslim countries, full normalization of relations – in return for Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders and the establishment of the Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The refugee problem would be solved by mutual agreement – meaning that Israel could veto any solution it considered unacceptable.
(more…)