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Jun 15, 2009
Brilliant Bibi
I personally thought PM Netanyahu's speech bordered on brilliance.
Not that what he said was so unexpected or new. But the way he was able to maneuver within his problematic diplomatic situation and come up with a speech like he did was, in my mind, brilliant.
To start off, and this is not even the most important point to me, he gave up very little. He talked and talked and only mentioned once the possibility of a PA state at the end of the process. until that mention it was neighboring territories and living side by side and variations of that. And when he did finally mention it, he had already by then set so many preconditions that the Palestinians would have to fulfill, by their own agreement in previous negotiations and agreements, that the issue of a Palestinian State is at best moot, most likely irrelevant, and even if it should come to be it would by definition be not a problem, as they would be peaceful (assuming Israel stays tough on these conditions).
The more important part of the speech was the history lesson by Professor Bibi. Every time Bibi Netanyahu gets up to speak, you can expect some sort of history lesson somewhere in the speech. Too bad history is boring, so most people ignore those parts of the speech. For example, on the Israeli website I was watching the speech on, they had a plug-in to see peoples comments on the speech from Facebook. As soon as Bibi started talking history, you could see form the style of the comments that most people tuned out and only tuned back in when he started talking current reality again.
So Bibi gave a history lesson in two parts:
Based on the reactions from the PA, it seems they have shown again how little they are actually interested in peace and will not honor past agreements. They expect Netanyahu to hand them everything on a silver platter and not obligate them to keep their side of the deals...
Not that what he said was so unexpected or new. But the way he was able to maneuver within his problematic diplomatic situation and come up with a speech like he did was, in my mind, brilliant.
To start off, and this is not even the most important point to me, he gave up very little. He talked and talked and only mentioned once the possibility of a PA state at the end of the process. until that mention it was neighboring territories and living side by side and variations of that. And when he did finally mention it, he had already by then set so many preconditions that the Palestinians would have to fulfill, by their own agreement in previous negotiations and agreements, that the issue of a Palestinian State is at best moot, most likely irrelevant, and even if it should come to be it would by definition be not a problem, as they would be peaceful (assuming Israel stays tough on these conditions).
The more important part of the speech was the history lesson by Professor Bibi. Every time Bibi Netanyahu gets up to speak, you can expect some sort of history lesson somewhere in the speech. Too bad history is boring, so most people ignore those parts of the speech. For example, on the Israeli website I was watching the speech on, they had a plug-in to see peoples comments on the speech from Facebook. As soon as Bibi started talking history, you could see form the style of the comments that most people tuned out and only tuned back in when he started talking current reality again.
So Bibi gave a history lesson in two parts:
- He discussed the history of Palestinian terror showing two things - 1) Palestinian terror started well before the State or any semblance of occupation existed. So anybody who claims the Pali terror is a result of the occupation is a liar. 2) He showed how every time Israel gave concessions, in land, to the Palestinians terror from their side increased.
- He refuted the suggestion by Obama, and others, that the State of Israel is a result of the Holocaust. He went through a Jewish history lesson detailing how the Land of Israel has been ours for three thousand + years, and he described our history in, and connection to, the land. He said the Holocaust may have sped up the process of our returning to the land, but it is not the cause of our returning to the land. He even said that had we already had the state before the holocaust, it would have prevented the holocaust. That point would be debatable, but the point was made.
Based on the reactions from the PA, it seems they have shown again how little they are actually interested in peace and will not honor past agreements. They expect Netanyahu to hand them everything on a silver platter and not obligate them to keep their side of the deals...
Labels:
Barak Obama,
Israel,
Netanyahu,
palestinians
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I curious if Abbas has ever given his "state of union" that addresses the same issues to the world.
ReplyDeleteany idea?
i was also impressed with his manipulation of a proposed plan while negating obama's holocaust suggestion.
ReplyDeletein this way, bibi is telling obama that he's not the daddy.
what was also important was his emphasis that settlers have a right to our land and are not stopping peace. this is an important message not to the US or the pallies, but to the rest of the jewish people who take it out on us settlers. it's important for them to hear it from the PM and it doesn't seem like they have from our buddies ehud and ariel.
I agree 100% with your comments - Bibi's speech was right on the mark for the targetted audience. What do you expect from Abbas though - there was NOTHING in the speech that he could even pretend to agree with
ReplyDeleteNo Jerusalem
No refugees
No army in a pal state
Good points Rafi, but all Obama heard was, "...blah, blah, blah, Palestinian State, blah, blah, blah...".
ReplyDeleteSo now that Bibi finally used the catch phrase, all Obama has to do is whittle away all the far fetched preconditions and, voila, a palestinian state! Thank you Bibi.
A good politician says much, promises little and avoids specifics. Bibi didn't promise anything, talked about Iran, the economy, national unity and then discussed a hypothetical Palestinian state that will never happen. As soon as that sinks in with people in the West - all the talk of the so-called two state solution is going to remain just that - talk. The leftist Israeli media and branja hate Bibi but even they can't argue he achieved what he had set out to do.
ReplyDeleteI agree- this speech was strategically clever. Bibi came off looking like a good guy in the eyes of the West while promising nothing that could actually be implemented.
ReplyDeleteI thought the speech was fantastic as well. Obama took the bait also by coming out and saying it was a positive step BEFORE the arabs had a chance to start bashing it. I thought it was masterfully done.
ReplyDeleteKol Hakovod to Bibi.
I am totally shocked that people who are Shomrei Torah would think that this speech, which consisted of squirming and wiggling in vain out of the noose getting tighter around our necks, is brilliant.
ReplyDeleteClose you Gemaras, learn last week's Parsha over again, and then learn Nevi'im for a change.
Shy Guy
ReplyDeletewhen you read נביאים start with ישעיהו and ירמיהו we can't always have everything we are entitled to, and we have to be careful regarding world powers. Bibi's doing the best he can under the circumstances. He didn't commit to taking down on מאחז or removing a single Jew from his home, despite having to deal with an openly hostile US administration
Mul Ha'enayim, Yeshayahu and Yirmiyahu was what I was thinking of in the first place.
ReplyDelete"Entitled to"? What are we "entitled to"?
Netanyahu's already taken down Ma'achazim. He'll take down more. He's aligned with Ehud Barak and he'll align with Livni should someone in the coalition resign in protest (not counting on it).
And because his rational thinking is based only on the physical world he sees and hears, he will capitulate further, just as he did when he was prime minister the first time.
Do I wish for a miracle? Of course I do! That Am Yisrael should wake up already. Perhaps then we'll have some entitlement to talk about.
Im B'chukotai Tei'lechu.......
you can tell he hit it out of the park from the fact that the serious left , unfortunately the loonies will always remain loonies, couldnt attack anything he said ans instead said Hey you see Bibi is turning into a leftist.
ReplyDeleteposhut brilliant.