Editorial
Netanyahu's bizarre offer to Palestinians
A proper two-state solution is the only way out
BENJAMIN Netanyahu has just given Palestinians every reason to reject the peace terms he has offered them. And with the Palestinians are people around the world who have consistently believed that a two-state formula, whereby Israel and a free Palestine will co-exist side by side, is the only solution to what has so long been an intractable problem. What Netanyahu has offered is, in effect, a rejection of everything that could have taken the Middle East peace process forward. He has agreed to a two-state solution, on condition that Palestine has no control over its air space and agrees to be fully demilitarized. It cannot have any defence pacts with any country and it must guarantee that Israel will never be under threat from it.
As a leading Palestinian figure has put it, what Israel's prime minister has put across is not the theme of a sovereign state for Palestinians but a protectorate of isolated cantons for them. Moreover, Netanyahu has demanded that Palestine recognise Israel, which in effect would mean that Palestinian refugees who fled from their homes in 1948 cannot any more lay claim to their property. In simple terms, the Netanyahu proposal is both arrogant and naïve. It is arrogant because the Israeli government presumes that its so-called two-state plan will be accepted by a Palestinian leadership desperate about an end to the crisis; and it is naïve because the prime minister does not seem to have taken historical circumstances into consideration. The United States may have termed the move as an important step forward, but in essence, it is a step backward. The European Union may think it is a move in the right direction. As a matter of fact, it is anything but.
Which is why Netanyahu's offer cannot and will not be taken seriously. That he had to produce a formula for peace, in however desultory and careless a fashion, under pressure from the Obama administration has never been in doubt. He can now tell his friends, once the rejection of his formula is complete, that he came up with an offer but the Palestinians shot it down. Things will thus be back to square one.
The bottomline today is clear. Increased pressure must be brought to bear on Israel to come round to the question of a proper, well fleshed-out and internationally acceptable two-state solution in the Middle East. Anything less will be pointless.
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