Netanyahu: Unilateral moves by PA will be reciprocated

[Israel Insider]

"There is no substitute for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and any unilateral attempts outside that framework will unravel the existing agreements between us and could entail unilateral steps by Israel," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a high level gathering of Israeli and American policy makers at the Saban Forum in Jerusalem on Sunday night.

Netanyahu's statement came a day after chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat announced that the PA may unilaterally ask the UN to recognize a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. While the United States has explicitly opposed unilateral acts by either side, recent State Department comments, such as those last week by Under-Secretary of State William Burns, have thrown some doubt onto the prospect of the previously-believed inevitable US veto in the UN Security Council should such a resolution come to a vote.

Unilateral Israeli actions could involve annexation of areas in Judea and Samaria that the Jewish State intends to keep in any final settlement, including the Jordan Valley, Gush Etzion, Gush Ariel and various areas around Jerusalem.

Netanyahu stressed that in order to achieve peace, "negotiations must resume immediately," adding Israel was prepared to begin talks "with a generous spirit." He added: "I want to stress that we are willing to take steps that will help in advancing the peace process, but it must begin, there is no reason to waste time." While negotiations were not easy, Netanyahu said, "there is no other way to bring about change."

Read more in The Jerusalem Post.

[Gaia-גאיה]

So, no more talk? Is that the way Hamas wants to deal with it?

[Robert Bernier]

A better solution.
If the billions the world is committed to pay the Palestinians went not only to the Palestinian families to help them with relocating, but also to any Arab nation willing to take them in, to help them absorb the Palestinians, then there is some chance for such proposal gaining traction and for the Arab world to start letting go off their dream of a Judenrein Middle East. A new solution might be conceived of with Israel taking over Gaza and the West Bank for itself and the Palestinians making an exodus from the land and being absorbed by other nations. Such solution would be one that would be bought and paid for from the annual billions of dollars in welfare the world now throws at Palestinians, in favor of Palestinians and those nations prepared to absorb them as citizens. More details at : http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2008/01/case-for-population-exchange-part-i.html

[Robert Bernier]

”Palestinian” extremism is the obstacle to peace.
They refuse to accept any fair compromise, because they are absolutely stuck, due to incessant incitement from demagogues, on the idea that Israel must be destroyed. Every Palestinian leader to date who has ever mentioned peace has only spoken of temporary cease-fires with Israel, never a permanent peace. The Arabs want "peace" only long enough to re-arm, train and gain strength. Do the Arabs want peace ? Just open :
http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2009/02/cease-fire-with-whom.html

[Mark Storm]

In previous years I have considered what consequences would follow a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state - whether the declaration came from Israel or elsewhere. This recent suggestion of Erekat's smacks of one borne of (honest?) frustration, but there are always a thousand other motivations behind anything that comes from the multi-factional Palestinians. One ought to be especially wary of anything voiced by a Palestinian politician who cut his teeth under Arafat. I once proposed, in different times and circumstances, that Israel unilaterally declare the Palestinian independent state. Under such a proposal, Israel would retain the regions aforementioned (Gush Etzion, Gush Ariel and other strategic locales) but effectively surrender control of the majority of the land the world regards as the "West Bank" and Gaza. My suggestion was based on the certainty that the only thing binding the Palestinians was their hatred of Israel. Following factional exterminations, the Palestinians would use their state as a launch pad for a war against Israel. After such a Palestinian sovereign-state invasion, Israel would have full justification for a defensive existential war... one that would resolve the ongoing problems for good.
Times change. Circumstances change. My prediction about Palestinians' internecine hatred was well-seen in the Hamas/Fatah clashes seen in Gaza some years ago when Israel pulled out her settlers there. The world was quick to ignore how the Gazan Palestinians rapidly established a state-lette based on Israel-hatred and (what is in large part) Sharia law. Despite having full authority in Gaza to do whatever they want... establish a new start-up laissez-faire economic micro-state, perhaps...? ... begin the healing process between Palestinians and Israelis, maybe... ? ... instead, the Hamas charter stills calls for the extermination of Israel, still launches attacks into Israel's territory ... and Israel is supposed to negotiate with these people?! Hardly!
My point is made and we all knew it; the Palestinians still largely want a state INSTEAD of Israel, not one BESIDE it.
Now we have Erekat's proposal of a unilaterally-declared Palestinian state in the West Bank. Netanyahu, certainly, and the UN (it seems) have rejected it - for the moment or for good? Let us play a mind-exercise. Imagine if Netanyahu had said "yes". It would not be hard to see 3 states emerge: Israel, 'Palestine' and Gaza. Within days, if not hours, the Hamas faction from its stronghold in Gaza would lauch an all-out programme of "Palestinian Unification"... under their aegis, no doubt. Can anyone really see Hamas meekly sitting by and letting Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah prosper in the larger dominions of Palestinian territory whilst they languish in the strip of Gazan desert, eternally dependent on world welfare handouts? I seriously doubt that! They would want the whole prize: the whole land from Eilat to the Golan.
The rivalries would arise, factional blood-letting would ensue... assassinations, midnight "long knives"... the whole ugly process... until a new coalition party of sorts would rule in 'united' West Bank / Gaza. And their agenda? Wipe out Israel. In short, nothing different from what I'd suggested some years ago.
This is why the "Two State" solution must first sort out how to get Hamas effectively neutralised. Fatah, it seems, is becoming a party Israel might work with, if only the hotheads of Hamas and the like are silenced. Like Netanyahu, I agree that getting the Palestinians to discredit Hamas is the first step before entertaining any suggestions of a Palestinian micro-state. Perhaps if Erekat had said "I think Hamas (and Amadinejad and Hizbullah...?) should shut up and we all should start working for peace"... publically... his proposal might have been better received.

[RonaldH]

I think Netanyahu is taking the right approach to this trial ballon floated by the Pals. Abbas maybe hell bent on making one of the biggest Palestinian blunders of all time and that is saying a lot. I don't understand how or why he thinks he can declare Jewish settled Judea and Samaria as part of a Palestinian state. Any attempted implementation of that idea seems likely to lead to a bad result for the Pals.