Sunday, June 14, 2009

Well Done Bibi

Binyamin Netanyahu has just done a very hard thing especially for a man from the right of the israeli political spectrum ,a man who was opposed to pulling out of gaza, opposed to oslo ,and lets be honest said some pretty terrible thing about great peace loving israeli leaders such as yitshak rabin.

Yet today despite all of this and thanks in no small part to the insistence of Barack Obama , binyamin Netanyahu has accepted the principle of a palestinian state, he has accepted the principle of no new settlements. This man is no longer an extremist. To those who say the palestinian state will have nothing because it is demillitarised , this was a requirement from those on the left of the politcal spectrum , from rabin , barak and now netanyahu , of course Israeli leader do not want a fully millitarised state by it's borders who will have elements in their leadership still seeking the destruction of the State of Israel.

The palestinian leadership responded pathetically to this speech by netanyahu saying he has hijacked the peace process. Surely though he has done the opposite, he is willing to talk to you about a palestinian state without preconditions, all he ask is for you to recognise the Jewish State, that is not an onerous demand , yet your response suggests the palestinian supposed moderate leadership under Mahmoud Abbas cannot even do that. Israel is pushing the peace process forward it's over to you now , Mr Abbas, you can either show yourself as a man of peace or as i fear your utterances suggest Arafat mark 2 -that is to say you pretend to want peace but won't recognise israel.