Netanyahu Brought Nothing New

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

I listened to a number of pillars of the Palestinian Authority right after Netanyahu finished delivering his speech, and told myself that their lamenting over the negotiating process shows they were never truly negotiating at all, since the long years since 1991 have been more than enough to learn Israel’s positions, its tactical methods, and its strategic goals. It is clear they were waiting for a hand of mercy or pity to extend toward them, granting them some of their wishes, so they could present them to the Palestinian people as their own accomplishments. What Netanyahu brought is nothing particular to him — it is a verbal confirmation of what Israel’s leaders, across their various government coalitions, have been doing for decades, specifically since the Madrid Conference right up to now.

Netanyahu affirmed the continuation of settlement building, and Rabin, Shamir, Peres, Barak, and Olmert all affirmed the same thing in practice. The enemy’s government has never once stopped settlement building, has never stopped confiscating land, demolishing homes, and uprooting trees and stones. The Palestinian negotiator has said, time and again, that he would halt negotiations if settlement building continued. Settlement building continued, and so did the negotiations.

Netanyahu affirmed a disarmed Palestinian entity, operating according to the requirements of Israeli security under strict standards. Peres affirmed this before him, and Barak and Livni, and, recently, Hillary Clinton, America’s secretary of state, affirmed it too. As for the Palestinians guarding Israel’s security, that is what Dayton is doing, directing the various security activities. Even the Kalashnikov carried by Palestinian Authority men, according to what Dayton told Congress, is not lethal to Israelis, because its range and accuracy are deliberately weakened, and Israeli officers usually inspect these weapons before handing them over to the Authority, to make sure they cannot fatally wound the well-protected Israelis. Strangely, some Palestinians still ask about this state that will have no army, as though they came from another planet, blind to the arrangements already taking shape on the ground.

Israel’s security standards are many and never-ending, and tomorrow the Zionists will regulate Palestinian marriages to limit births, force pregnant Palestinian women to abort in accordance with security arrangements, intervene in universities and cancel Palestinian studies courses, treat prayers of mercy for the martyrs as incitement, intervene in the folk verses sung by wedding poets, and monitor an old woman’s prayer that her son be protected from bastards, and so on.

As for the right of return, there is consensus among the Zionists, across all parties, on rejecting it, and statements from party and government leaderships on this matter are abundant. Beyond this, there are Palestinians who drop the right of return, considering demands for it and insistence on it harmful to the negotiating process. My assessment is that whoever signed the agreements with Israel understands that Israel could never have agreed to sign had it retained any suspicion that the signatories on the Palestinian side still wanted the right of return. I explained this matter in a number of articles, in which I said the right of return had been implicitly annulled, that this annulment was simply the logical consequence of the decision to recognize Israel, and that this annulment was carried out practically, though not legally, by the Palestinian National Council in 1988.

As for “economic peace,” it forms the very essence of the Oslo and Taba Accords and other agreements. The essence of the Oslo and Taba Accords is safeguarding Israeli security in exchange for the Palestinians’ daily bread. There are secondary matters within the two agreements, but their vital substance still revolves around Israeli security, and the people of the West, together with Israel, have worked to tie the Palestinian people’s livelihood to their own will, always working to publicize deprivation with every shortfall they judged appropriate, and preventing genuine economic development from taking place in the West Bank and Gaza, so that Palestinians would never feel capable of achieving self-sufficiency, even partially.

Regarding Jerusalem, none of Israel’s successive governments has ever hesitated in Judaizing Jerusalem. Every Jewish and Zionist party and association, and every government, has insisted on Judaizing Jerusalem, and this Judaization has never stopped despite every international resolution, every appeal, every plea, and every threat. We have never heard a single Israeli leader say that East Jerusalem is the capital of the Palestinian state — we have heard, and continue to hear, from every leader of the enemy, that “united Jerusalem” is the eternal capital of Israel.

Netanyahu brought nothing new, and said nothing that every leader of Israel and every one of its successive governments has not already done, practically and actually. He is like every other leader, differing from them only in his candor and verbal clarity. Netanyahu alone is telling every Arab and Palestinian leader that they must stop deceiving themselves. Perhaps he is telling them that all their rushing to the White House, their trips, their travels, and their conferences will avail them nothing.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “نتن ياهو لم يأت بجديد” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.