Hamas War

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Is Bibi Really Backtracking on a "Palestinian State," or is it Last Minute Electioneering?

The polling stations are now open here in Israel. Within 24 Hours we will know the make up of the next Knesset. We will not know who will be Prime Minister for longer.

There has been last minute news about sitting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that he now pledges that he will not facilitate the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an interview with NRG the day before the general election, said that a Palestinian state would not be created if he remained prime minister.
 Video by Reuters on Publish DateMarch 16, 2015. Photo by Baz Ratner/Reuters.

Netanyahu Says No to Statehood for Palestinians 
JERUSALEM — Under pressure on the eve of a surprisingly close election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Monday doubled down on his appeal to right-wing voters, declaring definitively that if he was returned to office he would never establish a Palestinian state. The statement reversed Mr. Netanyahu’s endorsement of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a 2009 speech at Bar Ilan University, and fulfilled many world leaders’ suspicions that he was never really serious about peace negotiations. If he manages to eke out a fourth term, the new stance would further fray Mr. Netanyahu’s ruinous relationship with the Obama administration and heighten tension with European countries already frustrated with the stalled peace process.
“I think that anyone who is going to establish a Palestinian state today and evacuate lands is giving attack grounds to the radical Islam against the state of Israel,” he said in a video interview published on NRG, an Israeli news site that leans to the right. “There is a real threat here that a left-wing government will join the international community and follow its orders.” (NY Times)
Are we supposed to believe him or not? That is the question!

Honestly, I'd still rather give my vote to Bennett's Bayit Yehudi, Jewish Home, which has been consistently against another Arab terror state.

9 comments:

Shelly said...

Hard to determine consistency when they've only been around a couple years (in present incarnation). I hope they will be.

Sammy Finkelman said...

I don't think Netanyahu said he will not facilitate the establishment of a Palestiniana state.

The left is trying to make it look like he did because they think it will hurt him in the election

People will conclude that it is either flipflopping = insincerity or desperation = bandwagon effect for Herzog!

But Netanyahu didn't do anything of the sort.

Netanyahu qualified what he said by the word "today"

As reported by the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/17/world/middleeast/benjamin-netanyahu-campaign-settlement.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

“I think that anyone who is going to establish a Palestinian state today and evacuate lands is giving attack grounds to the radical Islam against the state of Israel,” he said in a video interview published on NRG, an Israeli news site that leans to the right. “There is a real threat here that a left-wing government will join the international community and follow its orders.”

How is that any kind of a reversal?

Was he saying before it might happen soon? Was he showing signs of going along with whatever the international community said?

Sammy Finkelman said...

Netanyahu has long been in favor of a Palestinian state as an eventual solution (to a non-pressing problem) and he still is.

Sammy Finkelman said...

New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/18/world/middleeast/netanyahu-israel-elections-arabs.html

— Under pressure on the eve of a surprisingly close election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Monday doubled down on his appeal to right-wing voters, declaring definitively that if he was returned to office he would never establish a Palestinian state.

He didn't say that at all.

He said you couldn't do that now because you would gove attack grounds to radical Islam againmst the state of Israel. He didnt say

NEVER.

He is not for annexation.

Batya said...

Sammy, thanks for the clarification. I'm still too jetlagged to read the fine print. Same ol' Bibi.

Anonymous said...

Let's be honest. Politics is so corrupted and everything is
'propaganda', mind manipulatione, besides all the fraaud that goes on. The answer is 'an intelligent' voter who doesn't fall for all the garbage thrown at him and votes for the party that is 'best' for the Jew and for Israel! Having dozens of parties is the worst because it confuses the mind and works well for the phony parties (left wing and those who get foreign aid to swing it the way want) and, of course, the uninformed fall into their trap. The main thing is that the left wing parties (all of them) lose big. Israel must return to its Jewish roots in every way.

Batya said...

G-d willing

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the clarification, Sammy. But what Batya wrote is how a lot of Americans interpreted what Bibi said. It was all over the news.

It still leaves me confused as to what and how Israelis feel about Gaza: worth fighting to get back or throwing the towel in?

Keliata

PS: Batya, you looked beautiful at the polling station:)

Batya said...

Keli, thanks