Gush Shalom - Israeli Peace Bloc: reaction to Netanyahu speech

In Congress Netanyahu rejects peace, offers a fictional Palestine never to become reality and embarks on a collision course with the Palestinians and the whole world.

Learn more, visit: Gush Shalom - Israeli Peace Bloc

(TEL AVIV) - The speech of PM Netanyahu in the US Congress was composed of dozens of colorful gimmicks and empty cliches, talk of a peace which he does not intend to conclude and of a fictional Palestinian state which he has no intention of seeing become reality.

Netanyahu praised democracy to the skies, while intending to continue occupation rule over millions of people by main force, against their will.

Netanyahu boasted of the freedom of religious worship supposedly provided by Israel at the holy places in Jerusalem, while the Israeli police has a declared policy of regularly barring Muslim worshippers from the mosques in the heart of Jerusalem.

Netanyahu spoke sentimentally about the David and Goliath story in the Bible, while in reality the state of Israel had become a modern Goliath which killed hundreds of children in the three weeks of bombing on Gaza, and the role of David passed to Palestinian protesters armed only with stones.

In demanding a perpetual Israeli occupation along the Jordan River Netanyahu makes clear that what he calls a Palestinian state would be little more than an isolated enclave cut off from the outside world, with all entry and exit under Israeli control – in effect, a new version of besieged Gaza. Netanyahu spread promises to make "painful compromises" and dismantle some of the settlements - and immediately blocked the road piling conditions upon conditions designed to ensure that the time for compromises would never come and the settlements would remain in being and continue to expand, robbing the lands of their Palestinians neighbors.

Netanyahu should not be blinded by the applause in a Congress which remains the hostage of a power-hungry Israeli lobby. It is unclear how long will this lobby retain its power, and whether either lobby or Congress are truly willing to embark upon a direct confrontation with the President of the United States on Netanyahu's behalf.

In his outspoken opposition to the principle of the 1967 lines with mutually agreed territorial swaps - the single route to peace which is agreed upon by the entire international community including the U.S. President - Netanyahu continues to dig in and burrow into his rejection of the chance for peace. His claim that the 1967 lines are "indefensible" is ludicrous, especially considering that it was exactly within these lines that the IDF gained the greatest military victory in Israel's history.

In contrast, the settlements scattered throughout the Occupied Territories produce a blurred boundary, in fact a complete lack of any border, which the IDF finds it difficult to defend. The undoubted historical fact that Jews lived in these areas thousands of years ago can in no way change the fact that nowadays we are there as conquerors and oppressors, and such we will stay as long as a single Israeli soldier remains there against the residents' wishes."

The extremist position that Netanyahu presented, wrapped in rhetoric and cliches, constitutes a final closing of the door to renewed negotiations and an embarkation on a course of collision with the Palestinians and the entire world, towards the inevitable "diplomatic tsunami" predicted by Defense Minister Barak. In the longer term it may actually turn out that Netanyahu – the very man who demands of the entire world to recognize the principle of "A Jewish State" – will be the one who drives the Palestinians to despair of achieving their own state and into demanding a vote for the Knesset instead.

Source: Gush Shalom - Israeli Peace Bloc