DEARBORN — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a speech on Sunday, June 14 that some have described as a groundbreaking acceptance of the creation of a Palestinian state, while others call it a debilitating step backwards in the peace process.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on June 17, 2009. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Netanyahu said a Palestinian state would have to be demilitarized, with no control over its airspace or borders, and its establishment contingent on recognition of Israel specifically as a Jewish state, among other conditions.
Palestinian Authority officials condemned the speech.

“Netanyahu’s speech closed the door to permanent status negotiations,” senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said. “We ask the world not to be fooled by his use of the term ‘Palestinian state’ because he qualified it. He declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel, said refugees would not be negotiated and that settlements would remain.”

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee released a statement on Tuesday calling on U.S. President Barack Obama, who had hailed the speech as a step forward, to “assert international law with Netanyahu.”

“In his address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the Palestinians should govern themselves but insisted on a number of conditions which would make viable and autonomous self-governance impossible,” the statement read. “Netanyahu continues to ignore pleas from the United States, including President Obama’s Cairo remarks, and the international community to halt settlement expansion. Instead, Netanyahu continues to take advantage of the excuse of natural growth, an excuse which has been evoked by numerous previous Israeli administrations as a method of settlement expansion.”

Don Cohen

Don Cohen, regional director of the pro-Israeli Jewish organization B’nai B’rith International, said he is “very supportive of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s outline for steps to achieve a two-state solution.”
“It’s natural for all parties to lay out red lines and concerns, and I think he did that,” Cohen said. “It’s easy to say ‘yes we agree to peace,’ but what will that look like? …I wasn’t troubled that he laid out some red lines. These are things that need to be put on the table… They shouldn’t be read as preconditions. I support the restart of negotiations without preconditions.”

Netanyahu did call for an immediate start to negotiations “without preconditions.”

But Ronald Stockton, a University of Michigan-Dearborn political science professor with expertise in Middle East issues, is skeptical.

Ronald Stockton

“His term ‘without preconditions’ is a tricky term,” Stockton said.
He said the Palestinian state Netanyahu proposes would hardly constitute a state.

The Palestinians would not be able to form treaties without Israel’s consent, would not have a military and wouldn’t have control over its airspace, leaving it a somewhat autonomous entity within Israeli control, Stockton said.

“If you look at the traits of a state, it wouldn’t really be a state,” he said.

He said requiring the Palestinians to accept Israel as a Jewish state would also force Arab Israelis to exclude themselves as equal citizens.

“He’s asking them to affirm something that they can’t affirm. It’s a precondition that’s non-negotiable,” he said.

“I don’t see this as helpful,” Stockton said about the speech as a whole. “It’s very much what he’s been saying for a couple of decades… this speech is meaningless.”

Daad Katato

Local Palestinian activist Daad Katato had harsher words in response to Netanyahu’s speech, and his vision of a Palestinian state.
“It’s the first time in history that a state will be created that won’t be independent, will be demilitarized, lacks recognized borders and dignity,” Katato said. “It’s ironic that such a weak state is mandated to recognize a neighboring, racist, powerful one.

“If such a state is erected now in West Bank, it will be merely ghettos controlled by an apartheid force from all directions. How can anybody in the world expect Palestinians to accept such state?

Unless Israel recognizes the Palestinian right of return, the olive branch that Mr. Netanyahu holds will remain a blood stained and thorn encrusted one.”

The White House praised the speech Sunday, calling it an “important step forward” in the Middle East peace process.

“He has to say that this is good,” said Stockton about the Obama administration’s response, “and then they’ll pick the positive statements.”

He said he expects U.S. envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell to find the “four or five statements that sound good” in the speech, and use them to press negotiations forward.

“Mitchell is one the most effective negotiators in the country. He’s very good at pressing and pressing,” Stockton said.