I’ve written over the last year about the newest phenomenon among the Palestinians and their supporters: they do not want negotiations—at all—with the Israeli government. In the past, the Palestinian leadership could at least use negotiations as a ploy to bide time or look like statesmen, and force Israeli leaders to spend their time on the Palestinian issue instead of other domestic issues.
But something changed with the speech Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made at Bar Ilan University in 2009, in which he declared his support for a two-state solution. And the shift has taken place, it seems, because despite the derision with which Netanyahu’s pronouncement was met by leftwing columnists, the Palestinian leadership seems to actually believe Netanyahu means it. And so negotiations have taken on a sense of historical heft they didn’t have in the age of Arafat, when everyone knew ahead of time Arafat’s answer would be no. Mahmoud Abbas has responded to the situation by adding new preconditions every time Netanyahu agrees to the last ones, in a desperate attempt to stave off peace negotiations. And now Jimmy Carter is getting in on the action.
Carter arrived in Israel this week with former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and former Irish president Mary Robinson, two other critics of Israel looking for something unhelpful to do with their time. The trio came to Israel to heap more attacks on the Israeli people, as would be expected. But they also met with Mahmoud Abbas. Did they at least suggest that maybe Abbas should consider negotiating with Netanyahu? The Times of Israel reports:
Abbas told them that he has decided to go ahead with the plan to ask the UN General Assembly to accept Palestine as a nonmember state in November. While Israel and the US fiercely oppose such a move, saying it doesn’t change facts on the ground and would preempt the outcome of future negotiations, Carter, Robinson and Brundtland wholeheartedly endorsed the plan, as it would give the Palestinians “a new stature.”
Rather than multilateral negotiations, Carter’s team told Abbas to ignore talks in favor of unilateral action opposed by the West. According to the New York Times, Netanyahu’s office pointed out the flaw in Carter’s no-negotiations strategy:
Mr. Regev pointed to Mr. Netanyahu’s 2009 speech calling for two states and said he “has repeatedly expressed his readiness for direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks without any preconditions whatsoever in order to advance that goal.”
“Those who want to see peace advanced should be asking the Palestinian leadership why they continue to boycott the negotiations,” he said in a statement. “The prime minister has consistently initiated confidence-building measures,” he added, citing the reduction of roadblocks, the advancement of funds and the issuance of work permits, among other measures.
But Mr. Carter blamed Mr. Netanyahu for the stalemate.
“I’ve known every prime minister since Golda Meir,” he said, ticking off experiences with Menachem Begin, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak. “All the previous prime ministers have been so courageous in their own way. In the past, all committed to the two states.
I suppose it bears repeating that past Israeli prime ministers did not support the two-state solution, up to and including Yitzhak Rabin. And that Netanyahu is to Rabin’s left on a Palestinian state, borders, and even Jerusalem. And that it’s pretty difficult to come to an agreement without negotiations.
Carter’s recipe is for continued Palestinian statelessness and the end of the peace process, not to mention Mideast diplomacy in general. That’s his right, of course, but we can at least appreciate the moments like these when he makes it so explicit.
"The trio came to Israel to heap more attacks on the Israeli people…" n nAt least in Carter's case, he came to attack Jews who have the audacity to defend themselves. The fact that they are Israeli is immaterial. n
Imagine what ex prez Obama will be like. . . n nI wonder what happened to Tutu? Why wasn't he along on this jaunt? n nAnd as for this trio of meddling clowns, why aren't they in Syria? n nPeople are being mowed down by the hundreds every week, and here they are wondering how they can pressure the Jews into laying their necks on the block for chubby, wannabee genociders.
"Imagine what ex prez Obama will be like. . . " nThe sooner we find out, the happier I will be. n n
Whether the suicidal and extremist Israeli left treats Bibi's reneging on his campaign promises and his long standing opposition to the two-state final solution with derision is irrelevant. What should concern those Jews believing in the long-term political, social and military security of Israel is that such a position is pure folly, which can only erode the ideological, religious, legal and military underpinnings of the Jewish state. Over the last twenty-years no other action has so damaged Israel as the Oslo accords, and when the titular head of Israel's right-wing succumbs to embracing them the damage is even all the greater. Sadly, one would expect Commentary writers to treat Bibi's about-face on such a crucial matter in an analytical and critical fashion rather than just instinctively approving whatever he does simply because his principal opponents happen to be anti-Semites and anti-Zionists.
It also bears repeating that Holocaust denier Abbas, who glorifies Arabs who mass murder Jews, does not want a two-state solution. As he recently reaffirmed (in Arabic, of course), his goal includes the liberation of all lands that Israel held before 1967 as well. In other words, all of Israel. Why does no Israeli leader call out what Abbas says to his own people, instead of indulging the polite fiction that he has given up the goal of destroying Israel?
Figuring Carter is easier. He is an unconstructed believer in deicide and supercessionism, who has never forgiven Jews for not being Baptists. I’m not sure he would like us even if (G-d forbid) every last one of us converted to his religion.
Carter is campaigning for Abbas job. No seriously he sees himself as the messiah of the Arabs in their quest for a new Holocaust. He always has. n nWhen we heard that Chris Stevens was the first Ambassador murdered since 1979, who was President when Adolph Dubs the US ambassador to Aghanistan was murdered by Islamist maniacs that year? Oh right, Jimmy Carter was. And what did he do? Absolutely nothing at all.
And every PM Carter met thought he was an ahole. But hey, next time the PA's budget runs over the cliff Jimmy can front them for it.
we have to make allowances for Jimmah. he's slipped to #2 in the Worst President Ever rankings. n nAmbassador Chris Stevens, in his 40s, is dead–brutally murdered in Benghazi. Jimmy Carter, who's 150 years old or thereabouts, flourishes like the green bay tree. now tell me God doesn't have a sick sense of humor.
Let's hope for a similar slip in the Worst Ex-President ratings. And soon.
Whatever happened to LGF? n nIt know lives in Obama's nether region.
Plenty. I used to post there under another handle, but ever since the 2008 campaign they have become moonbat territory.
Exactly. 'Palestine' was constructed to forever be a poison spewing albatross about the neck of he Jews. n nA genocidal weapon camouflaged as a 'nationality'. n nIN their heart of hearts, they know it. They know they are tools of the Arab world. Losers. And it makes their hatred all the deeper. n n n n