Thursday, June 13, 2013

The Israel/Poland joint communique is a disaster.

By Ted Belman
Netanyahu and entourage are headed to Poland for a high level meeting. In advance his office put out a joint communique which said, inter alia, “Unilateral steps by either party are counterproductive to achieving a sustainable lasting peace,”
Netanyahu took issue with this statement because, according to JPOST:

    The implication in that statement is that Netanyahu was taking a stand against construction in West Bank settlements, a position which would complicate his political standing at home.
The truth of the matter is that the objection to the statement arises from a misunderstanding of what the Oslo accords provide. In fact the Accords only proscribe unilateral steps which change the status of the land. Building on it would do no such thing.

Yesterday, JPOST reported that:
    As part of their joint statement on Middle East issues, Poland and Israel will agree that the latter’s legitimacy, the security of its citizens, and the Palestinian right to a state should never be in doubt.
This is shocking. While negotiations may result in them getting a state, they have no right to it. ?This is a huge concession that Netanyahu/Israel is making.?
I could not find the actual communique and no one reported on it.
But Israel National News published a news item today under the title “PM Backs Away from Statement w/Poland Endorsing PA Statehood”. Unfortunately I could find nothing in the item to back this up.

No comments: