By Ted Belman ——Bio and Archives--October 4, 2014
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"To defeat ISIS and leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power is to win the battle and lose the war. "The fight against militant Islam is indivisible. When militant Islam succeeds anywhere, it's emboldened everywhere. When it suffers a blow in one place, it's set back in every place. That's why Israel's fight against Hamas is not just our fight. It's your fight. Israel is fighting a fanaticism today that your countries may be forced to fight tomorrow."He also bristled at the accusations that Israel or the IDF were guilty of war crimes:
"--the brave soldiers of the IDF, our young boys and girls--they upheld the highest moral values of any army in the world. Israel's soldiers deserve not condemnation, but admiration. Admiration from decent people everywhere. "Israel was using its missiles to protect its children. Hamas was using its children to protect its missiles. "By investigating Israel rather than Hamas for war crimes, the UN Human Rights Council has betrayed its noble mission to protect the innocent. In fact, what it's doing is to turn the laws of war upside-down. Israel, which took unprecedented steps to minimize civilian casualties, Israel is condemned. Hamas, which both targeted and hid behind civilians--that a double war crime--Hamas is given a pass." "By granting international legitimacy to the use of human shields, the UN's Human Rights Council has thus become a Terrorist Rights Council, and it will have repercussions. It probably already has, about the use of civilians as human shields."Algemeiner reports on an article by David French in the National Review:
"Writing in the National Review, pundit David French observed that only a few months after the Obama Administration used terms like "appalled" and "disgraceful" in reacting to supposed civilian deaths during Israel's recent war against Hamas in Gaza, the president has now loosened the restrictions imposed last year to prevent civilian deaths arising from American military operations. The Obama administration has said that it was "appalled" by Israeli attacks that unintentionally killed civilians, even calling them "disgraceful". But that didn't stop it from applying less strict standards to its bombing policy in Iraq and Syria."Netanyahu continued:
"We live in a world steeped in tyranny and terror, where gays are hanged from cranes in Tehran, political prisoners are executed in Gaza, young girls are abducted en masse in Nigeria and hundreds of thousands are butchered in Syria, Libya and Iraq. Yet nearly half, nearly half of the UN Human Rights Council's resolutions focusing on a single country have been directed against Israel, the one true democracy in the Middle East--Israel, where issues are openly debated in a boisterous parliament, where human rights are protected by independent courts and where women, gays and minorities live in a genuinely free society."Obama doesn't seem to notice. Subsequently, Netanyahu and FM Lieberman met with Ban Ki Moon to make certain that his message was received, loud and clear. Perhaps the truth telling about Mahmoud Abbas was a precursor to rejecting fruitless negotiations with the PA to achieve peace. It used to be conventional thinking that an agreement with the Palestinians was a precursor to achieving peace with the wider Arab community. No longer. Netanyahu turned things on its head and said: "But these days I think it may work the other way around: Namely that a broader rapprochement between Israel and the Arab world may help facilitate an Israeli-Palestinian peace." Following up on this thinking Haaretz published an article by David Zuker, a former Meretz MK, which opened with:
"The two-state solution--if it still has any chance of realization--will not be implemented in negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The path of direct negotiations between the two has been sterile for years, and no additional fertility treatments will help. How can something that has been infertile all these years become fertile? Why should something that has been unsuccessful so many times in the past succeed now?"Not only the Israeli Left but the White House, should take this to heart. Netanyahu in his meeting with Obama, made the case for this inversion. But the truth of the matter is, it will make no difference. The Arab League, or what is left of it, and the US will not waiver from their formula requiring borders based on the '67 lines plus swaps and a divided Jerusalem. Obama, and his Arab allies in bombing ISIS, will not waiver from supporting the Palestinian position at a time when they are alienating the Arab street. Although Hotovely and Yaalon above mentioned believe that a Palestinian state will not be born, Netanyahu firmly supported the two state solution prior to meeting with Obama, when he said "I remain committed to the vision of peace of two states for two peoples, based on mutual recognition and rock solid security arrangements." The problem is that Israel will never agree to '67 lines plus swaps and dividing Jerusalem and the Palestinians will never agree to rock solid security arrangements which would diminish its sovereignty. And they will not abandon any of their claims, nor will they recognize Israel as a Jewish state. In effect, Netanyahu is supportive of a two state solution but not the one envisioned by the international community. In fact Israel has no obligation to accept such a solution and has been granted the right by this community, time and time again, to negotiate all issues. A case in point is the recent decision by Israel to proceed with the planned construction of 2610 new apartments in Jerusalem. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki responded saying:
"This development will only draw condemnation from the international community, distance Israel from even its closest allies, poison the atmosphere not only with the Palestinians but also with the very Arab governments with which Prime Minister (Binyamin) Netanyahu said he wanted to build relations,"Netanyahu's response: "Arabs in Jerusalem are free to purchase apartments in the western [part of the] city and no one is arguing against it" and "I have no intention of telling Jews they can't buy apartments in East Jerusalem. This is private property and an individual right." It is also sovereign Israeli territory, due to its annexation, though unrecognized by the international community. Finally a lot of daylight separates Netanyahu from Obama on negotiations with Iran. Reuters reports: "The crux of the U.S.-Israeli disagreement is that Netanyahu wants Tehran completely stripped of its nuclear capability, while Obama has suggested he is open to Iran continuing to enrich uranium on a limited basis for civilian purposes." Further dialogue or negotiations will not overcome these intractable differences.
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Ted Belman is a retired lawyer and Editor of Israpundit.org. He made aliyah from Canada in 2009 and now lives in Jerusalem.