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Netanyahu’s new condition for those who are listening

June 6, 2017 at 1:29 pm

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) speaks upon US President Trump’s arrival in Tel Aviv on 22 May, 2017 [Daniel Bar On/Anadolu Agency]

In his latest remarks, made last Tuesday, two weeks after a series of remarks regarding Jerusalem, 50 years after its occupation, stressing that it will remain united under Israeli sovereignty, Netanyahu added another new condition for settlement when he told Army Radio:

The idea of abandoning the territories and achieving peace is incorrect… In order to guarantee our existence, we must have military and security control over all the land West of the Jordan River.

He couldn’t be clearer than that, as Judea and Samara, as they call it, must be under Israeli security and military control. This means that the areas with large Palestinian populations will be under the control of the PA, but not the land, only the people, i.e. this will be nothing more than autonomy regardless of whether it is verbally elevated to the level of a state or remains under its current name, the PA. There is no need to remind everyone of his position on Jerusalem and the refugees, as they are two decided issues, not only by him and the right, but also for the left wing.

Read: Netanyahu pledges that Al-Aqsa Mosque will remain occupied ‘forever’

The people will respond to them so that no one will confront them by asking them to respond to these statements or their position on them. Netanyahu’s words are not binding, and the leadership is adhering to the constants, but they haven’t answered the question of how Netanyahu or any others will be obligated to achieve the constants they have demanded, or whether there is a regional or international horizon, as well as an Arab horizon to achieve anything of this?

In reality, they are well aware that the constants they are talking about will not be achieved by embarrassment and international pressure (where is this pressure?). This is cited by the fact that fewer constants were presented to the left-wing government (Olmert/Livni) and they were not responded to. The negotiations documents expose the story for those looking for the truth, not delusions.

#GazaSiege

What they are actually concerned with is evading the question of the alternative, because they are not thinking of an alternative at all, as they see it as absurd. It is as if our people were liberated without pressure or resistance or as if the enemy withdrew from south Lebanon and Gaza with love and international pressure.

Today, our enemy is growing more and more arrogant and proud. It is not satisfied with the strict security cooperation with the PA in order to rein in the resistance. They are now calling for the criminalisation of those who resisted by demanding that the allowances allocated to them, i.e. the families of martyrs and prisoners, are cut. They are also demanding that the curriculums are changed in order to remove the hostility from them, as if the rights of the “neighbours” were achieved and all that is left to do is stop the so-called incitement.

Members of Fatah do not answer these questions, and if they are asked, all they reply with is criticism of Hamas, as if this absolves them from their responsibilities. Moreover, their demands to Hamas is to abandon the resistance and hand over their weapons, and not only to hand over the Gaza Strip in order for it to be under the rule of the internationally recognised PA.

To them I say, search in yourselves and your consciences; abandon partisanship. You are completely lost and your talk of committing to the constants is foolish and selling illusions, because what you are doing through your authority and all of your policies is serving the occupation instead of making their occupation costly to them like all of the nations who have experienced the same experience have done in the past.

Translated from the New Khalij, 6 June 2017

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.