IT goes without saying that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is far more concerned about the survival of his fragile coalition with right-wing ideologues than taking concrete steps toward peace with the Palestinians. In a half-hour speech on Sunday, he reiterated his long-standing vision of peace with Arabs and the Palestinians: no future Palestinian state is on the table, refugees are not allowed to get back to their home towns and the Israeli settlements would expand “naturally” eating up more Palestinian land in the West Bank. Equally misleading, Netanyahu's concept of Israel is that it is a Jewish state and would remain so ignoring the political, cultural and social rights of hundreds of thousands of Arabs living inside Israel in which their existence predates the establishment of Israel. According to Netanyahu's fresh peace proposals, Palestinians will be given a demilitarized sort of state existing side by side with nuclear-armed Israel. Future Palestine, Netanyahu suggests, is a sovereignty-free state: it has no control over its aerial, costal and land borders and that such State would remain so forever. He did not endorse the two-state solution that had been restated by Obama in his speech to the Muslim world earlier this month, nor has he elaborated on the form of such Palestinian statehood. Likewise, Netanyahu's solution to the Palestinian refugees is no less funny. Again, Netanyahu wants the refugee problem to be resolved outside the borders of Israel in stark violations of the UN resolutions and even of the American declared position. For many Palestinians, the right of return is a non-negotiable issue and that no Palestinian negotiator would dare make concessions regarding it. Four millions of displaced Palestinians are living in refugee camps scattered across the Middle East in which they dream of getting back to their towns and villages, some of them still retain keys to their house doors. Regarding settlements, despite President Obama's repeated call for a complete freeze, Netanyahu seems to justify Israel's expansionist policy in which a “natural growth” of existing illegal settlements is furthered. His position on settlement is not new and this could lead to a complete freeze of US-brokered peace talks that Obama's administration is keen on resuming as quickly as possible. The last principle of Netanyahu's recipe for peace with the Palestinians is his reiteration that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel, deliberately ignoring the rights of Palestinians in the Eastern part of the city where Islam's third holiest place is located. Under the International law, Israel is an occupier of the Eastern Jerusalem and it is illegal to settle people there, rather than claiming sovereignty on it or even declaring it “a unified capital.” Despite all that, Netanyahu's renewed attempts to jeopardize the whole peace process is a reminder to the embattled Palestinian factions that their dispute should come to a close. Egypt-brokered talks between Fatah and Hamas should succeed and a national unity government be formed. Palestinians cannot confront the hardline policy of Netanyahu's right-wing coalition while they remain bitterly divided. All in all, Netanyahu's conditions are not conducive to real and sustainable peace with Palestinians. Therefore, Arabs are understandably required to withdraw all proposals for peace presented so far if the existing Israeli government staunchly continues to endorse its narrow approach to the peace process. An approach that gives the Israelis security and peace and the Palestinians an illusion of a state where there is no state at all. – SG The writer can be reached at: [email protected] __
