Sunday, September 12, 2010
Few matters demonstrate the Palestinian Authority's unreadiness to be their own sovereign than their inability to figure out what country they are to run -- hint: It ain't Israel. PM demands Palestinians recognize Israel as Jewish state
Netanyahu: "I don't hear the other side saying 'two states for two nations.' I hear two states, but I don't hear two nations"; ministers speak up on settlement freeze.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday said that a peace agreement is based, first of all, on the recognition of Israel as the national state of the Jewish People...
...The prime minister stated that "we say that the solution is two states for two peoples, meaning two national states, a Jewish national state and a Palestinian national state. To my regret, I have yet to hear from the Palestinians the phrase 'two states for two peoples'. I hear them saying 'two states' but I do not hear them recognizing two states for two peoples."...
Well, if Abbas and the Palestinian Arabs were serious, this would be basic. Any peace treaty must end the conflict. Elementary. And that means that Abbas must be willing to admit that he's to be President of the hoped for State of Palestine on borders that don't contain what is now recognized as Israel and be satisfied with making a future from that.
Instead, what we have is a flashback to the seventeenth century, before the advent of the Peace of Westphalia, at which time the modern system of nation states with sovereign borders is generally thought to have been codified and rulers were expected to essentially keep their rulership within their own borders and lay hands off what went on in others.
Abbas wants to be granted his own kingdom, and still be a prince of Israel. This is retrograde. It's a ticket to continued conflict, and it's not viable. Until they recognize the reality of what Israel is, and move with the rest of us into the 21st century, they aren't ready for day 1 of a peace conference.
