Bibi's Big Dud

The Washington Post's Richard Cohen gave it the old college try,cajoling Bibi Netanyahu by invoking his 101-year old historian and Zionist father, Benzion, and Dov Weissglass, Ariel Sharon's chief of staff, to get off the dime on the peace process. Cohen wrote that today's moderate Palestinian leadership may disappear tomorrow and the 1967 borders are no less defensible than the current ones. Referring to Ze'ev Jabotinsky,a militant Zionist leader and journalist, whose essay "The Iron Wall" encapsulates Bibi's doctrine, Cohen writes," A doctrine enunciated in 1923 is out of date. You can not build an iron wall high enough anymore."

Josh Marshall writing before the speech said that Bibi isn't interested in a two-state solution. never was and never will be. It's time for everyone to face that fact.

The Christian Science Monitor earlier in the day hinted that Zionists were known for taking great risks and getting out ahead of events. It was clear that the Israeli embassy had done their background work and earlier in the day had promised "surprises" in the Prime Minister's speech.

In an article "The Israel Reality That Obama Doesn't Understand" in today's Haaretz , Merav Michaeli, a member of Isreali peace Initiative delegation, fills in President Obama on Bibi's own reality show as "the leader of a persecuted people", a role he revels in. He cites Abe Foxman's statement that Obama has actually done alot of good for Israel and his proposals were good for Israel. But, according to Michaeli, there is " no reality in this world which has ever convinced our leaders to stop being a persecuted nation."

Michaeli recalls that nine years ago 22 Arab League countries submittted a proposal for ending the conflict with the Palestinians and for the full normalization with all of them. The result, the Israeli leaders simply chose to ignore the fact that 22 Arab countries would accept the right of Israel to exist in peace. Only 15% of the Israeli public even know that such an offer was made. When his delegation met with the Egyptian Foreign Minister to make the first response, he said "For 9 years the initiaticve has been on the table. Now you remembered?"

Michaeli in his address to President Obama writes,"The reality is that change is the thing that Israel in general and Netanyahu in particular fear the most. The reality is that the state of Israel has become accustomed to the present situation and does not recognize itself without it. Israel has existed longer with the occupation than without it; it has existed for most of its years with no borders and is deathly afraid of change."

"The Reality is that Netanyahu never wanted or thought to initiate change. He wants settlements. He wants occupation. He wants the situation as it is and sees no problem with it. And now, Netanyahu prefers confrontation. Confrontation with you, confrontation with the Palestinians, confrontation with anyone he sees as coming out against "the persecuted people". The Reality is simply that confrontation we already know,Mr. President, but peace we do not know at all."

Yossi Aphen, an adviser to Ehud Barack and a former Mossad officer, has said that there is panic in Israeli government circles about the United Nations Resolution and are concerned that European governments are leaning toward accepting it.

SO BIBI'S SPEECH. For his own domestic political purposes, Bibi probably thought he did terrific. He received over two dozen standing ovations from a pliant Congress. Harry Reid even appeared with Bibi and chastised the President for some of his comments and said , of course,the peace agreements have to be negotiated on the ground and can not be dictated--as if his own President said that. Remember great people have been asked to address a Joint Session of Congress-Winston Churchill, NelsonMandela, Yitzhak Rabin, Vaclav Havel to name a few. None that I recalled were invited by the opposition party, while the President was scheduled to be abroad.

I listened to the speech. Frankly, it was horrible. Bibi's delivery was a "just us guys" type. He was snide and flip at points and then he invoked the horrors of being constantly under threat. While he inserted positive references to President Obama's suggestions at points, he basically reiterated what everyone knew were his core personal beliefs. His "painful compromises" were simply that he would have to give back any land of "ancient Judea and Samaaria", not Palestinian land. He promised that the Palestinian nation would have ample space and that he would be generous in what he gives it.

But he inserted several deal breakers. The promise of Ehud Barak of two countries with capitals in Jerusalem vanished. To much applause, Bibi asserted that the only time Jews, Christians and Muslims could worship freely in Jerusalem was when it was under complete Israeli control. And he claims that it would always remains so and be the capital of Israel. He then said that as all Jews in the world could emigrate to Israel so to Arabs and Palestinians could emigrate to Palestine. So much for any discussion on the right of return. Then because Israel was giving up so much, it would have to have its own military presence in the Jordan Valley amidst a demilitarized Palestine.

Bibi claimed that 6 Israeli Prime Ministers had agreed to the idea of a Palestinian state. But that Israel could not negotiate with terrorists. So he demanded that President Abbas tear up his Pact with Hamas, which had be shelved until the Palestinians listened to President Obama's proposals. And that the Palestinians should shelve its efforts to go to the United Nations for recognition because only negotiations would produce a state. Then he said he would be generous with the size of such a state and be the first to support its membership in the United Nations.

Within minutes after his speech, President Abbas formally announced that Israeli military presence in Palestine would be unacceptable. Unnamed Palestinian advisers said that Bibi had virtually ignored every talking point mentioned by the Palestinians. He responded that the speech was in effect " a declaration of war". The Palestinians by the end of the day said they would not be coming back to negotiate until the settlements stopped.

So we are left with the status quo and not much hope that anything will change anytime soon. The King of Jordan after hearing last week's spat between Bibi and President Obama said that there would be no movement for at least a year. The problem with this is that the UN resolution will come up and the United States will have to be the country that kills it, even though Bibi gave absolutely nothing to his only ally, except heartburn.

Maybe it's just as well. The last time it looked like there would breakthroughs in the peace talks were the Wye Plantation talks under Clinton. Then it was the Palestinians , particularly Yasir Arafat who could not pull the trigger. Basically, the Palestinians got 90% of what they wanted and Arafat thought he couldn't agree because of dissent within the ranks. It's so strange to see Israel now afraid of a moderate Palestinian leader, when they were to cut a deal with their arch enemy and a real killer.