Netanyahu's Parody of a Palestinian "State"

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned the word “peace” 43 times in his 3,100-word speech on Palestinian-Israeli peace on June 14, 2009. (Read the complete text of the speech.) The device was similar to George W. Bush using the words “freedom” and “liberty” (or their derivatives) 50 times in his second inaugural address, a speech one-third shorter than Netanyahu’s. The response to Netanyahu has to be what it was to Bush: consider the source.

And what he never uttered: The name "Palestine."

Netanyahu does not have the reputation of a peacemaker. Quite the contrary. He did not change anybody’s mind with his June 14 speech, written as if to force Palestinians and Arabs to reject its proposals. If it was to be a follow-up to Barack Obama’s Cairo speech—an earnest counter-proposal for advancing Palestinian statehood—it failed. If it was to present a Netanyahu more inclined to compromise with reality rather than flaunt the same ideological conceits, it also failed. It was a serenade to Israel’s right wing, its settler movement and its Iranophobes—a hardening of immovable positions rather than the merest suggestion of a new day.

The heart of the speech, its most quotable and anticipated part—-Netanyahu’s vision for a Palestinian future, a Palestinian “state”-—was a non-starter. It was rather an affront to Palestinians, or anyone who either believes in or understands the right to self-determination and national sovereignty.

Here’s Netanyahu’s vision of a Palestinian state: it would be “demilitarized,” he said, “namely, without an army, without control of its airspace, and with effective security measures to prevent weapons smuggling into the territory – real monitoring, and not what occurs in Gaza today. And obviously, the Palestinians will not be able to forge military pacts.”

That’s not a Palestinian state. It’s the same old Palestinian iron cage, but with its own currency. It’s the current Gaza state of siege under a more official guise.

The speech had a hard-edged, imperious streak, deflecting the issues of the moment—a genuine Palestinian-Israeli resolution—with two inflaming points that, on Palestinian and Arab ears, have the effect of rhetorical fence-building: the long rehash of Israel’s wars with Palestinians and Israelis, a rehash that placed the blame for the wars exclusively on Palestinians and Arabs, and the recurring demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state—a demand imposed neither on the United States, the United Nations or any other member state.

But Netanyahu knew what he was doing. Palestinians, the Israeli right's favorite narrative goes, don't know how to seize opportunities. They only know how to flub them. By making Palestinians an offer he knows they'll refuse (an offer they must refuse, if they're to have any dignity left), Netanyahu knows as surely as the sun will come out on martial law in the West Bank tomorrow that they will look like rejectionists once again. He'll look like the guy who tried. Who really tried. People won't see the impossibly high bar Netanyahu set. They'll only see another rejection. Netanyahu will make sure they do. Then he'll go back to his I-told-you-so corner and resume what never stopped anyway: the expropriation of what's left of Palestinian hopes for a decent future on their disappearing land.

Read the full analysis of Netanyahu's speech: "A Parody, Not a Peace Initiative."

See Also:

• Your Turn, Reader: Is Netanyahu's Offer Honest or Cynical?
• Full Text: Netanyahu's Speech
• Obama-Netanyahu: Round 1 Goes to Obama
• How Obama Can Resolve the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
• Netanyahu, Jerusalem and the Dome of the Rock