ANALYSIS: Netanyahu lobs peacemaking ball into Palestinian court

By Jeff Abramowitz Jun 15, 2009, 13:10 GMT

Tel Aviv - By agreeing, finally, to endorse a Palestinian state, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lobbed the ball right into the Palestinian court Sunday night.

And the Palestinian Authority, seeing the conditions attached, lobbed it right back.

Giving a highly anticipated policy address, Netanyahu announced that he was prepared to accept a Palestinian state, albeit one that was demilitarized and on condition Palestinians accepted Israel as a Jewish state.

Ever since he was sworn in on March 31, the hardline prime minister has been under international, and especially US pressure, to agree to Palestinian statehood, the accepted end result of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

His demurral, until Sunday night, set the stage for what observers said was the worst rift in years between Washington and Jerusalem, a far cry from the cozy relationship Israel enjoyed with US President Barack Obama's predecessor, George W Bush.

The address, which the Israeli leader gave at an academic think tank named after Menahem Begin and Anwar Sadat, the progenitors of the Israel-Egypt peace treaty, outlined the peace policies Netanyahu intends following.

By prefacing his speech with support for Obama's efforts to change the Middle East, Jerusalem Post editor David Horovitz said Monday, 'Netanyahu at a nuanced stroke lobbed the peacemaking ball back into the Palestinian court.'

'And he moved himself a long way, if not perhaps all the way, from Obama's list of unsavory 'obstacles to progress,' to the place where Israel need always belong, among the potential 'facilitators of progress.''

While the gist of Netanyahu's comments reflect the Israeli position and consensus, but his remarks nonetheless constituted a crossing of the Rubicon for the hardline leader who in 2002 declared publicly that a Palestinian state would mean the end of a state for the Jews.

'It was one small step for the peace process, one giant leap for Benjamin Netanyahu,' Ben Caspit, an analysts for the Ma'ariv daily, said Monday.

Palestinians however were unimpressed with Netanyahu's rhetoric. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told al-Jazeera that the Israeli leader 'will have to wait 1,000 years before he finds one Palestinian who will go along with him with this feeble state.'

Palestinians were particularly incensed by Netanyahu's refusal to countenance a total freeze only Israeli settlements in the West Bank - he said that while Israel would build no more new settlements, construction would continue in existing ones.

The Israeli premier's rejection, in keeping with long-standing Israeli policy, of the demand that Palestinian refugees and their descendents be allowed to return to the homes they abandoned in what is now Israel, also struck an unresponsive note with the Palestinian leadership.

'Netanyahu's failure to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state and imposing a solution to the refugees outside will not lead to a just and comprehensive peace in accordance with international resolutions,' Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said.

A spokesman for Netanyahu would not be drawn into saying whether Israel had received a different response in private.

'I think what's said in private is said in private,' Mark Regev said.

Most Israeli commentators said however Monday that the real target of Netanyahu's remarks was Obama.

The premier has come under increasing pressure from Obama to freeze settlements and endorse a Palestinian state.

His speech, analysts Nahum Barnea said, 'was written as a rescue tool.'

Coming 10 days after Obama made a landmark address in Cairo to the Muslim world, Netanyahu's remarks, said commentator Herb Keinon in the Jerusalem Post, 'came across as attempt - after weeks of public quibbling with Washington - to positively respond to Obama, to throw the ball back into the US's and the Palestinians' court.'

But, Horvitz cautioned, it was 'still only a speech.'

'As Obama will doubtless now be saying to both sides, let's see some action.'