If anyone out there was still
clinging to the notion that the Israeli government officially supports a
two-state peace with the Palestinians,
Barak Ravid’s account of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee discussion on Tuesday should be enough to shatter that illusion.
The discussion saw government coalition members vociferously challenging
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni’s assertion that Israel’s policy is one of
“negotiations based on two national states which will bring an end to
the conflict."
MK
Orit Strock from Habayit Hayehudi cut Livni off. "Two states for two
peoples is not the government's official position," she said. "It is not
part of the government's guiding principles, and for good reason. This
is perhaps Netanyahu's position and your position, but it has not been
accepted as the government's position."
[…] "The government has not even decided that it supports two nations
for two peoples," [Habayit Hayehudi MK Yoni] Chetboun told Livni.
MK Moti Yogev (Habayit Hayehudi) continued the thought, saying, "Two nations for two peoples is disconnected from reality."
What’s disturbing about this is
that these Knesset members are actually right: official commitment to
the two-state solution isn’t in the coalition agreement, nor is it
spelled out in the government’s ruling party’s platform (Likud-Beytenu
didn’t bother to create one this past election cycle). And this isn’t
the first time that omission has lent strength to Israeli politicians
who oppose two states—not just in far-right, pro-annexationist Habayit
Hayehudi, but in the Likud itself. Back in January, Likud MKs stated
that their party does not support a two-state solution, Netanyahu’s 2009
Bar Ilan speech notwithstanding.
As the Times of Israel reported:
Education
Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who is No. 3 on the Likud-Beytenu joint list,
said “two states for two peoples was never part of [Likud's] election
platform.” MK Tzipi Hotovely, No. 15 on the list,
said the Bar-Ilan speech was a tactical maneuver by Netanyahu only meant to placate the world.
Netanyahu’s
failure to officially, formally, explicitly commit his own ruling
party—never mind the Israeli government writ large—to the two-state
solution,
in writing, is almost as problematic as his
failure to reprimand
the MKs who reject it out of hand. It seems reasonable to assume that,
if the prime minister were truly committed to a given solution, he would
have reprimanded the Likud MKs who spoke out against it last January,
and probably would’ve had a few choice words for the Habayit Hayehudi
MKs who spoke out Tuesday as well.
Building on this assumption,
J Street today launched an online petition
(my word, not theirs) to get Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren to clarify
whether or not the Israeli government supports the two-state solution.
“For there to be any hope of progress, the Israeli government must state
unequivocally that support for a two-state solution is a core principle
of its foreign policy,” J Street explained. That’s certainly true,
although personally I am less convinced by the follow-up assertion that
“a simple declarative statement by Prime Minister Netanyahu or
Ambassador Michael Oren would dispel these doubts immediately.” The
petition is a clever move because it will pressure Oren to speak
directly to this question, and I actually think there’s a good chance it
will succeed in accomplishing that goal. But I’d hazard a guess that,
if Oren does address the question, he’ll simply say exactly what he’s
said before.
Oren will focus on the prime minister, arguing that
he
supports two states, even if others within the coalition do not (which
is natural, after all, and even desirable—it’s a sign of Israel’s
vibrant democracy!). He'll quote
Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid
quoting Netanyahu saying that the government supports two states. He’ll
tout Netanyahu’s decision to appoint Livni lead peace negotiator—
although she’s “leading” in nothing but name. He’ll pay lip service to the peace process,
just like he did at the AIPAC conference in March,
when he stated that “Netanyahu has taken consistent risks for peace. In
2009, when he got up at Bar Ilan University and made the two-state
solution the official position of the Likud party, that was a risk.”
What he won’t mention is that these kinds of oral commitments are only
as good as the paper they’re written on—as the various Habayit Hayehudi
and Likud MKs have made painfully clear.
Ultimately,
what the Israeli government needs to do is enshrine its commitment to
two states in writing—coalition agreements, party platforms—so that it’s
crystal clear that this is official government policy. And then it
needs to take the next step, moving from words to deeds, starting with
confidence-building measures like a
Livni-backed
partial settlement freeze. Until it does this, there is simply no good
reason for either U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry or the Palestinians
to have, well, confidence in it.
MK
Ronen Hoffman of Yesh Atid put the problem best in Tuesday’s
discussion. He asked Habayit Hayehudi: "How is it possible to expect the
Palestinians to enter negotiations when part of our government opposes a
Palestinian state?" He’s right—such a situation expects a lot, it
expects too much—and that’s just what Habayit Hayehudi is counting on.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/22/two-states-israel-s-official-position-or-not.html
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