ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignored Palestinian rights and interests and gave US President Barack Obama an extremely narrow opening for pursuing Middle East peace on Sunday by offering an endorsement for a demilitarized Palestinian state. In a speech aimed at Obama as much as the Palestinians, Netanyahu said he would support a Palestinian state but insisted it be demilitarized and that Israel be recognized as a Jewish state with Jerusalem as its undivided capital. Obama surprisingly welcomed Netanyahu's remarks as an “important step forward” and seems to have accepted them as an endorsement of his goal of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Accepting Netanyahu's position appears to be an obvious u-turn from his previous statements supporting the Arab peace plan. Although generally restating previous Israeli positions on most issues, Netanyahu gave Obama just enough latitude to enable the US leader to move ahead with peacemaking in terms which ignore the legitimate right of Palestinians. “He spoke of a demilitarized state, but he also stripped it of all sovereignty attributes, transforming it into a protectorate of isolated cantons,” said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior aide to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. “Netanyahu is defying the world. The international community should reply by pressure to isolate Netanyahu and his policies and force Israel to submit to the peace process.” “After Netanyahu's speech, it has become clear that we are faced with an Israeli government that in reality refuses the two-state solution, the stop of settlement activity and the re-launch of negotiation from the point where they left off,” said senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat. Undermine Abbas Steven Cook, a senior fellow for Mideast studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Netanyahu had couched the endorsement of a Palestinian state in terms that would undermine and weaken Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his struggle with Hamas. “He did say a Palestinian state, which is somewhat of a breakthrough for a Likud leader,” Cook said. “But he repeated the same kinds of conditions on that Palestinian state that he has repeated over and over again. Demilitarization. No control over its air space, Israel can basically control its borders.” Netanyahu also insisted that Palestinians give up their demand that refugees be allowed to return to their homeland and resettle from where they were driven out within the borders of the current state of Israel. “To articulate it puts the Palestinians in a deeply awkward, awkward position,” Cook said. “It really does very little to help Abu Mazen (Abbas) in his struggle with Hamas.” Netanyahu also stopped short of declaring a full freeze on Israeli settlement activity as sought by Obama, agreeing only that Israel would build no new settlements and would not expropriate more Palestinian land. That leaves an issue that will continue to cause friction in US-Israeli relations. But David Makovsky, a senior fellow at the Washington Institution for Near East Policy, said Netanyahu had given Obama “something to work with, even if there are still differences on the settlement issue.” “Netanyahu took a major stride by making clear that the issue is no longer his refusal to accept a Palestinian state but rather the very shape of the state,” said Makovsky. “It's important because Netanyahu represents the right-of-center parties that have always been more wary of the peace process,” he added. But Cook said Netanyahu had left Obama with a tough job to move the peace process forward. “He did recognize a Palestinian state, but that's a thin reed to hold on to given all the other conditions,” Cook said. “I don't expect that President Obama will throw up his hands and say, ‘OK, that's it.' But he certainly didn't give Obama much to work with.”
