Obama’s new vision of Jewish state guarantees rights of Israeli Arabs

New National Security Strategy defines two-state solution in a way that differs from the terminology used by previous American administrations.
By Aluf Benn, HAARETZ

    The prime minister spoke of a “state of the Jewish people,” meaning one that is also a national home for Diaspora Jews, while the U.S. president spoke of a “Jewish state” with “rights for all Israelis.”

U.S. President Barack Obama has updated America’s official vision of Israel’s future to stress that the Jewish state must ensure equal rights for Israeli Arabs. His new National Security Strategy, released by the White House last month, defines the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a way that differs from the terminology used by previous American administrations. According to the document, the U.S. seeks two states that will live side by side in peace and security: “a Jewish state of Israel, with true security, acceptance, and rights for all Israelis; and a viable, independent Palestine with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967 and realizes the potential of the Palestinian people.”

Earlier statements by Obama had described Israel as an “independent Jewish state,” but made no mention of the rights of its citizens. The new version apparently seeks to address the Palestinian claim that recognizing Israel as a Jewish state would harm the rights of Israeli Arabs.

It may also be a response to Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s campaign to condition citizenship on loyalty.

Israel first asked the U.S. to recognize its identity as a Jewish state following the failure of the Camp David summit in 2000, and has repeated this request many times since. Recognition as a Jewish state is widely seen as a barrier to the Palestinian demand for a “right of return” for millions of Palestinian refugees and their offspring.

Former secretary of state Colin Powell urged the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state for the first time in November 2001, and this demand was later reiterated by then-president President George W. Bush. During the November 2007 Annapolis Conference, for instance, Bush said that Palestine should be the Palestinians’ homeland, “like Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began his tenure by making Palestinian recognition of Israel’s Jewish identity a prerequisite for a permanent settlement. Senior Palestinian Authority officials adamantly rejected this demand, expressing concern that such recognition would undermine the rights of Israel’s Arab citizens.

In a speech to the Knesset two weeks ago, Netanyahu reiterated this demand, saying that in his view, there is no such thing as an “Israeli people.” “The first thing [in negotiations] is Palestinian recognition of the State of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people,” he said. “When we are talking about a solution of two states for two peoples, one of these peoples is the Jewish people. It is not some Israeli people, it is the Jewish people.”

Netanyahu added: “Recognizing the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people implies an understanding that the Palestinians are willing to put an end to their refusal to recognize the Jewish state within some border or another, [and that] they know the problem of the refugees must be resolved outside the borders of the State of Israel.”

“The Jewish state’s legitimacy does not stem from the Palestinians’ recognition of us,” he stressed. “But peace begins with the fact that this recognition must take root. First, it must be clearly declared as a necessary condition – not for the start of talks, but for their completion. From there, it must be inculcated among the Palestinian public and begin to influence school books, sermons and statements.”

However, the identity Netanyahu proposes differs from the one Obama has just postulated: The prime minister spoke of a “state of the Jewish people,” meaning one that is also a national home for Diaspora Jews, while the U.S. president spoke of a “Jewish state” with “rights for all Israelis.”

June 8, 2010 | 5 Comments »

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  1. U.S. President Barack Obama has updated America’s official vision of Israel’s future to stress that the Jewish state must ensure equal rights for Israeli Arabs

    This Obama the impostor president (a Chicago leaf handout community organizer)does not speak for a majority of Americans. He should keep his nose and big ears out of Israel. He is an incompetent president and has no business suggesting or dictating to anyone.

    A majority of Americans vision of Israel, is a sovereign Jewish Nation situated from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean, including Judea, Samaria, Gaza, Sinai and the Golan Heights with it’s undivided city of Jerusalem as it’s capital, One Nation and One State only.

  2. Bibi needs to tell hussein to kiss his kosher ass

    Nice thought great phraseology but unfortunately he’s not very Kosher 🙂

  3. So the bottom line is that the fakestinians are entitled to have a state completely free of Jews and are allowed to repress Christians, but Israel must be a state of ALL of its people as opposed to a Jewish state. Bibi needs to tell hussein to kiss his kosher ass and then tell him where he can stick his hypocritical demands.

  4. Ahmadinejad Stresses Need for New World Order

    TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday called for cooperation among world states to forge a new world order.

    “The conditions we are experiencing today need planning for new orders in the world and (our) cooperation and co-thinking for organizing the conditions,” Ahmadinejad told reporters before departing for Istanbul, Turkey to take part in the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

    Reminding that major world and Asian players will take part in the Istanbul conference, the Iranian president underlined that “Iran, too, will have active participation in drafting the final statement, taking stances as well as mutual consultations” with participants in the conference.

    Ahmadinejad said that his visit will take place at the invitation of Turkish President Abdullah Gul, and pointed out that he is slated to meet other foreign officials during the visit.

    Ahmadinejad further confirmed his subsequent trip to Tajikistan, saying the visit will come in response to Tajik President Emomali Rahmon’s visit to Tehran in March 2010.

    The Iranian president mentioned that he will take part in the ‘Water for Life’ international conference in Tajikistan.

    The CICA Conference is underway in Istanbul on June 4-10.

    Turkey will take over the rotating term presidency of the CICA from Kazakhstan during the conference.

    Last year, Gul accepted Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s offer to take the presidency of the body.

    CICA is an inter-governmental security forum in Asia which was initiated by Kazakhstan’s then president in 1992 and currently has 18 member states, including Iran, Russia, China, South Korea and Turkey.

    http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8903171502

    Pay attention to this; there are huge implications for Israel as well for the U.S. Ahmadinejad is visting China also. It appears that Iran may be beginning to do what other Islamic countries have been slow to embrace; forge a world order with its principle power in the East (Russia, China, Turkey).

    If Ahmadinejad keeps this NWO talk up I can promise that leftists will embrace it. This is what every “good” leftists has dreams of and they believe joining all nations together in league as one it would negate the Iranian and all other nuclear threats.

    The danger confronting us all is a New World Order; the conflict for control is between the East and the West with Israel viewed as a Western Jewish society geographically out of place.