es, our Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is a champ at crafting and delivering powerful speeches. I’ve never denied that. His most recent, last night at the opening of the GA General Assembly, the annual gathering of the Jewish Federations of North America was his usual great performance.
PM tells Jewish Federations GA he is skeptical of Iran’s willingness to compromise on nuclear weapons; urges world against “pampering Palestinians”; says Western Wall is in Jerusalem, but belongs to all Jews.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stuck to his often repeated warning about Iran’s nuclear ambition, telling the Jewish Federations General Assembly in Jerusalem on Sunday night that, a deal which allows Iran the possibility of becoming a nuclear state in the future was “a bad deal”
Of course I don’t agree with everything he says, but I rarely agree with everything he does. I may be too much of a pragmatist, but I don’t see the logic in his policy vis-a-vis the Arabs, peace negotiations sic etc.
We also want to see peace with our Palestinian neighbors. I want to see peace with our Palestinian neighbors. I am ready for a historic compromise. We need to end this conflict once and for all, and to end it, there’s a simple principle. That principle is: two nation-states, two states for two peoples. Not one state for one people, the Palestinians, and then another state for two peoples. No. Two states for two peoples, which means that if the Palestinians expect us to recognize the Palestinian state for the Palestinian people, they must recognize the Jewish state for the Jewish people…
This conflict is about the Jewish state. Have I made that point, you think, subtly enough? You get it. Alright. So now let’s ask the second question. Because, you know, since 1921 until today it’s almost a century of unremitting incitement and an education of hatred. Now, I don’t mean in Hamas or Islamic Jihad. I mean in the Palestinian Authority: textbooks, schools, kindergartens. I showed John Kerry a teacher teaching young kids – four year olds, five year olds. What will you be? Shaheedim, martyrs (that’s suicide bombers)? And what will you struggle for? Palestine? What is Palestine? From Kiryat Shmona to Umm-Rash-Rash (that’s Eilat). From the river to the sea…
There is a century of this. The minimum thing that we can demand, aside from demanding the end of incitement, but to get a deal is that the official position of the Palestinian leadership recognize the Jewish state. That’s a minimum, but I don’t delude myself. This will be a long process. But it must begin with that. Otherwise, what are we saying? That this plan to dissolve Israel in stages will continue? Of course not. But we also have to recognize that it may not take root. It may not. We have at best a cold peace. I hope for a warm one. By the way, a cold peace is better than a hot war. But a warm peace is better than a cold peace. I hope for a warm peace, beginning with that recognition of the Jewish state and the abandonment of the “right of return” and all those other fantasies that are still harbored in Palestinian culture.
I find Netanyahu rather inconsistent. He should be as firm with the Arabs as he claims to be with the Iranians.
In all honesty, when it comes to “peace,” nothing Bibi says makes any real sense. A “cold peace” is not peace. The Arab terrorists aka the “Palestinians” are more of a threat to the State of Israel than Iran is. Iran is a clear threat and danger to the entire world, while the “Palestinians” concentrate their venom on Israel. Negotiations won’t bring us peace and security.
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