How Could It Be Peace, If The State of Israel Won't Be Recognized as Jewish?

Duh?  Call this one of my very dumb questions:

How Could It Be Peace, If The State of Israel Won't Be Recognized as Jewish?

I just saw a headline in the Jerusalem Post:

US State Department: Recognition of 'Jewish state' not a precondition to peace talks

The US State Department affirmed on Friday that the US recognizes Israel as a "Jewish state" but that this is not a precondition in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
The statement was in response to questions regarding the department's position on comments made by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that the Palestinian Authority must recognize Israel as a Jewish state, something that its chairman, President Mahmoud Abbas, said that he was unwilling to do.

It's pretty obvious that in their obsessive enthusiasm for "making a deal" the Americans and too many Israelis have lost focus on the key element of the "issue," what the aim, the goal of these "talks" actually is.  One thing it isn't is a "deal." "A deal" is when an owner of a discount or an outlet store goes to a store going out of business or selling off last season's clothes cheaply and offers a good price to take it all off of his/her hands. Usually there's some bargaining/negotiating until they come to an agreement. That's a "deal."

Israelis aren't looking for a deal with the Arabs. Israelis want peace. Even most Israelis who think that a peace agreement can be negotiated expect that our "Arab partners" will recognize the State of Israel as a Jewish State and treat us as a friend. Israelis really want peace and good neighborly relations and will do everything to get it.

OK, now I must admit that I consider that aim to be as realistic as Santa Claus you must understand that Israelis have been brainwashed for over sixty years that there's a way to "make peace with our Arab neighbors." And ever since the dust settled in June, 1967, after the Six Days War our movers and shakers have been insisting that we can exchange the Land we liberated for "peace."

United States President Barack Hussein Obama, now in his second term is gradually revealing his true antipathy towards the State of Israel. Read Caroline Glick's Surviving Obama.

obama-goldberg-march-2014

Speaking with journalist Charlie Rose, Goldberg equated Obama’s threat to stop supporting Israel in international forums to the talk of a mafia don. Obama told Goldberg that if Israel doesn’t cut a deal with the Palestinians soon, “our ability to manage the international fallout is going to be limited.” He added, “And that has consequences.”
 
That statement, Goldberg noted, was a “veiled threat” and “almost up there with, ‘Nice little Jewish state you’ve got there. Hate to see something happen to it.’” Goldberg saw the interview as Obama’s way of showing that he is beginning to abandon the pretense of supporting Israel, now that he no longer faces reelection. In Goldberg’s words, “It’s not that the gloves are coming off. It’s more that the mask of diplomatic language is coming off a little bit.”
 
Goldberg added that due to the fact that Obama “doesn't have to run again for anything,” he doesn't need to pretend feelings for Israel that he doesn't have, by among other things, going to the AIPAC annual policy conference.
 
And indeed, Obama has achieved a comfort level with implementing anti-Israel policies. His threat to step aside and let Israel-haters have their way in places like the United Nations or in certain quarters of Europe is of a piece with several steps the he is already reportedly undertaking to harm Israel in various ways.

Obama and Kerry aren't trying to facilitate peace negotiations between Israel and the Arabs. It doesn't matter what they call it.  You can't go by the labels. True peace isn't on the menu. The "Two State Solution" can only be a danger to the continued existence of the State of Israel.  I know that I repeat that over on this blog.

I was pleasantly surprised to read an interview with  Deputy Minister for Liaison with the Knesset Ofir Akunis in the Jerusalem Post. I must admit that I know nothing about him besides what is in this interview.

...Akunis seemed to be trying to step out from the prime minister’s shadow, publicly speaking out against a two-state solution, which Netanyahu supports, and the government’s decision to release Palestinian terrorists.
“It’s no secret that I have an ideological dispute with the prime minister on diplomatic issues. It’s been true since the Bar-Ilan Speech in 2009,” he hedged. “When he first talked about it, I told [Netanyahu] before anyone else that I cannot support it, because this has been my ideology my entire political life and I do not think the conflict will be solved via this equation.”
Akunis said his differences with Netanyahu came to the fore more recently because diplomatic issues moved into the spotlight in this Knesset, as opposed to the previous one, but stressed that he spoke out against the settlement construction freeze in 2009-2010.
“I’m allowed to disagree with [Netanyahu],” Akunis said, defending his position. “He was the first to hear from me that if a [two-state] agreement comes to a vote in the Knesset, I’ll vote against it. Not abstain, vote against it, because I resolutely oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state in the place where our nation was born.

G-d willing Akunis should succeed in changing Israeli policy away from the dangerous delusional one our government has been following.