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http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=63737
The Americans from Kerry’s team who complained to Nachum Barnea about Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu unwittingly gave the prime minister an early Israel Independence Day gift.
Here is what they told Barnea, as reported in his 2 May Yediot Ahronot article “How We Failed.”
#1. The Palestinians refused to compromise during the course of negotiations and insisted that any Israeli security presence (including in the Jordan Valley) vanish within no more than 5 years.
#2. Netanyahu insists on absolute Israeli security control for an unlimited period of time.
#3. Netanyahu refused to agree to a map dividing Jerusalem.
#4. Netanyahu’s attorney, Molcho, stood guard to thwart efforts by Livni to compromise Israel’s position.
For almost all Israelis reading the above there is a simple reaction:
Three cheers for Netanyahu!
Once again, the Americans are pathetically clueless, relying on the words of encouragement from their lefty Israeli friends rather than actually appreciating what the country really thinks. They thought they would hurt Netanyahu with this piece when the opposite is the case.
And now to the real puzzle: If they actually believe that the Palestinians “will get a State for themselves in the end” then why all the fuss?
After all, according to the narrative these folks subscribe to, once the Palestinians have a state of their own we will enjoy Utopian Peace. [Only someone who thought there would be Utopian Peace would think that a deal that completely removes the IDF from the scene within 60 months is a deal that promises Israel security].
Let me suggest an alternative explanation for the hysterics.
The concern isn’t that in the absence of a deal that a Palestinian state will come into existence without a signing ceremony on the White House lawn.
The concern is that at the end of the day Israel succeeds in moving on.
We make it past all the “tsunamis”.
The large Palestinian population centers thrive under some form of autonomy.
The demographic trends continue with each year more Israeli Jews born.
And the dream of withdrawal and division that was the focus of leftist Israelis and their leftist American Jewish friends will be no more serious a possibility than that we all start speaking Esperanto.
