Bibi’s Stratregy is to build a broad base of support

I don’t know what Bibi’s strategy is but that won’t stop me from speculating on it. Many are arguing that Bibi should present a bold strategy either one in which he makes dramatic concessions i.e., accepts the ’67 lines as the starting point of negotiations or one in which he shows an intent to annex Area “C”. Bibi is doing neither. In stead he wants to reiterate his vision as set out below for two reasons. One he believes this is an Israeli consensus position which a majority of Israelis will embrace and secondly one in which American’s will think reasonable. He knows that the political winds in the leadup to the September UN vote will approach gale force and he wants to have the broadest possible support among Israelis and Americans. There is no possibility fo this vision being accepted so he reasons that no harm is sticking to it for now. If the UN recognizes Palestine, then he will be liberated to annex “C” if he so chooses. He will have shown that he is reasonable but now that Oslo is over he can act without its constraint. Ted Belman

Netanyahu Adds Settlement Blocs to Peace Conditions

by Gil Ronen, INN

In a speech before the Knesset’s plenum in its special Herzl Day session, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu laid down five conditions for a peace treaty with the Palestinian Authority Arabs. These are:

    1 The Palestinians must recognize Israel as the Jewish nation’s state.
    2 The treaty must be an end to the conflict.
    3 The Arab refugee problem must be solved outside of Israel’s borders.
    4 A Palestinian state will have to be demilitarized and a peace treaty must safeguard Israel’s security.
    5 The settlement blocs will remain within the state of Israel and Jerusalem will remain its united capital.


Netanyahu’s speech can be seen as an accurate indication of what he intends to say when he addresses the U.S. Congress next Tuesday. It is unlikely that he will go back on any of the principles he laid down, given the venue: a Herzl Day address before the Knesset plenum. Fearing that the prime minister intended to announce concessions in Washington, MKs within Likud had demanded that Netanyahu address Israelis before he goes to the U.S..

Based on Monday’s speech, the prime minister does not appear to be planning any retreat from previous positions, and may even have toughened his stance somewhat, although this is arguable.

By and large, the speech does not depart from the one he delivered at Bar Ilan University in June 2009. In that speech as in the latest one, Netanyahu said that a PA state would be demilitarized, and that Israel would require security arrangements in a peace treaty. He also said that Jerusalem would remain united as Israel’s capital and that Arab refugees would be resettled outside Israel.

The condition added by Netanyahu in this speech is Israel’s retention of the large settlement blocs. In the Bar Ilan speech, Netanyahu said that the territorial issues would be determined in negotiations and that until then, Israel would not be building new settlements or expropriating land in Judea and Samaria.

In Monday’s speech he was less defensive and more confident on this issue, raising the ante and announcing that Israel would insist on keeping the large settlement blocs in its possession.

May 19, 2011 | 2 Comments »

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  1. “A Palestinian state will have to be demilitarized… “

    Well, now let’s see, the last time we tried that, as I recall (the only time EVER, apparently) was Germany, Versailles, the Rhineland.

    That certainly worked out splendidly.

    By all means, why not give it a… shot?

    What could it hurt?

  2. Bibi’s #1 strategy is to remain Prime Minister. His #2 strategy is to remain the leader of Likud. Everything else comes after that, and understandably so.

    OUR strategy, meanwhile, needs to be to adamantly reject any plan, country or leader that endangers Israel’s existence. As Hillel said, “If I’m not for me, then who?” No country on earth will support the security of Israel, if Jewish Israelis and their friends do not do so. Bibi’s position is hopeless, unless he can honestly say that if he bent to the left one iota, he would be ousted from power.