Jewish state recognition is new demand
With Benjamin Netanyahu's insistence on recognition of Israel's status as a Jewish state, Israel has inserted a new condition into peace negotiations, writes Howard Schneider of The Washington Post:
JERUSALEM -- The documents accepted by Israeli leaders during breakthrough peace talks with the Palestinians in Oslo in 1993 said nothing about their country's status as a Jewish state or homeland -- a concept absent as well from other accords negotiated by the two sides as recently as 2007.
"It has never been an Israeli demand," said Ron Pundak, a member of Israel's negotiating team in Norway and now director of the Peres Center for Peace in Tel Aviv. "When we negotiated Oslo, the issue of the characteristics of our state was never an issue. I think it is a mistake that we demand of others how we define ourselves."
Sixteen years later, with the Oslo accords tattered by years of conflict, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has decided that a final peace will require more: Palestinian recognition of Israel, not just as a diplomatic or political entity, but as the legitimate homeland of the Jewish people. Palestinians view the demand as unnecessary, a bid to derail their quest for a state of their own. But Netanyahu's advisers say it is an effort to push the peace process beyond diplomacy and toward reconciliation.
"If there is no recognition that the Jewish people exist, that the Jewish people emerged from this land, then you have no end of conflict," said Michael B. Oren, Netanyahu's incoming ambassador to Washington. "During Oslo, the thinking was: We don't need recognition. We are strong. We are the winners. Give them a chance. Give them an opportunity to acclimate to peace. This was wrong."
Full story here.
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Arabs had many years to fulfill Oslo so called “accord” pushed by open antisemite Carter. Did somebody said that Obama is pro-Israely?
Jewish luck. Everything had to be finalysed in Bush time.
As usually, Arabs missed their train too. Now it is the time for a sober Israeli government to correct mistakes of Oslo “accord” that, according to Arab side did not exist “de-facto” in any way.
Arab side show herself as an unreliable agreement mate.
So, negotiating should start all over and No Israeli move shall be done before Arab side fulfill her responding obligations.
At Oslo Israel was in fact in a stong positon. At the same time, it was lead by appeasers who deluded themselves that not being too tough with Arabs who had become hated and despised in the Arab world for backing Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait would yield a good outcome. Today the same arrogant, aggressive, uncompromising absolutists demand Israel’s surrender and they are backed by their USA ally. Their demand to expel Jews from a future Palestine, combined with a fictitious “right of return”, makes it imperative that Israel is the embodiment of Jewish self-determination. It is not a ploy to deny “Palestian” statehood, but to safeguard the Jewish homeland, and if the Palies don’t like that, tough.
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michael rosner
06/24/09 05:27 PM
It is precisely because the Oslo accord is in tatters, that this demand, which should have been included at Oslo in the first place, should now be the focus and test if the Palestinians are serious or not. We do not need another Oslo war to show that past proposals were a failure and all those people associated with it’s composition were/are living in a dream world. When the Arabs in general learn to accept Jewish Israel as one of its neighbors, than forming a peace agreement will follow shortly.