By Ted Belman ——Bio and Archives--October 4, 2011
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"Gates argued to the president directly that Netanyahu is not only ungrateful, but also endangering his country by refusing to grapple with Israel's growing isolation and with the demographic challenges it faces if it keeps control of the West Bank."This pressure being put on the Netanyahu government reflects the actual Obama policy towards Israel rather than his UN speech which was much fairer to Israel than he had been in the past. Obama wants Israel to give in to his demands for negotiations based on '67 lines with swaps and to appease all her neighbours.
Israel does us more harm than good in the Arab world We can't negotiate about the existence of Israel but we can reduce its size to historical proportions. If the issue is the existence of Israe1, we can't cooperate. But if the issue is more normal borders, we can cooperate. Aide: Your Excellency, do you think a settlement would come through the Palestinians in the area? 'How do you read it? Is it in your power to create such a thing? Kissinger: Not in 1976. I have to be perfectly frank with you. I think the Palestinian identity has to be recognized in some form. But we need the thoughtful cooperation of the Arabs.This is still the American policy. It's not about achieving peace. It is about shrinking Israel to "historical proportions". The Palestinian people are only a tool created to bring this about. Does that mean the armistice lines or the Partition lines? By participating in the peace process, Israel is allowing this to take place. Every step along the way and every concession Israel has made have left her weaker and with less rights. When Israel entered into the Oslo Accords, she foolishly thought she was in control. And she would have been but for the interference of the international community. In the result Israel is not in control and is reacting to the control and initiatives of others. The process keeps changing to her detriment without her consent. So far Israel has elected to continue the process, probably believing that by doing so she is forcing the PA to play its hand. Her victory of getting the Quartet to demand "negotiations without preconditions" will be short lived because the first thing to be negotiated is the conditions or framework for negotiations. To show they mean business, the Quartet introduced timelines which are as meaningless as the timelines set out in the Oslo Accords and the Roadmap. They will simply be ignored. Had the US not attempted to shrink Israel, there would have peace now. Had the US not supported the policy of keeping the original refugees and their descendants in despicable camps, there would be no refugee problem now. If Israel had been allowed to keep the Sinai and Judea and Samaria (West Bank), Israel would not be isolated but would be dominant. Had the US not insisted that Israel abandon the Philadelphi Corridor when she was leaving Gaza, Hamas wouldn't be in power there armed to the teeth. Had the US not built up the Egyptian army and put the Muslim Brotherhood in charge of it, Israel would have nothing to fear from Egypt. She no doubt would have used the Sinai or part of it to create a Palestinian state large enough to accommodate the Palestinians. The sooner Israel abandons the peace process the better.
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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.