jpost.com
Former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman said on Saturday that an agreement with the Palestinians was not currently possible, weeks before US President Barack Obama’s upcoming trip to Israel.
Liberman ticked off in a Channel 2 interview the assassination last week of the opposition leader in Tunisia, the terrorist murder last week of dozens of people in Iraq, and the killing of 117 people in Syria on Friday, and said it was not realistic to think it possible in this environment to reach a comprehensive peace accord with the Palestinians.
“Anyone who thinks that in the center of the diplomatic, political and social tsunami that is shaking the Arab world it is possible to get a magical solution of comprehensive peace with the Palestinians does not understand,” he said.
“I am saying clearly that it is impossible to reach a comprehensive agreement with the Palestinians,” said Liberman, who has not hidden his desire to return to the helm at the Foreign Ministry after his upcoming trial. “It is impossible to solve the conflict, it needs to be managed.”
Soon after Obama’s visit was announced last week, White House spokesman Jay Carney played down expectations of Obama arriving in Israel with any new dramatic peace proposals, saying that this was not the focus of the visit.
Liberman said he was in favor of negotiations with the Palestinians “at any time and in any place in the world, without preconditions.” However, he said those negotiations should be over “a long term interim agreement.”
Whether or not negotiations will be held, he said, rested with the Palestinians. “The ball is in Abu Mazen’s [PA President Mahmoud Abbas] court,” he said.
Liberman said that to his understanding the first thing on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s agenda was “the real security threat, first from the Iranians, but also from Hamas, Hezbollah and even Abu Mazen who only two days ago was in Cairo and thanked [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad [for supporting the PA upgrade at the UN in November].”
Meanwhile, Liberman’s former deputy Danny Ayalon, who Liberman left off his party’s Knesset slate, said Saturday at a cultural event in Holon that Israel should recognize Palestine as a full member of the UN.
“Israel will give the Palestinians sovereignty and independence and in return, they will recognize Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people and will guarantee security arrangements,” he recommended.
Ayalon called on Netanyahu to say to the Palestinians: “I am prepared to recognize you, but you have to recognize me.”
Ayalon also said Abbas must state in Arabic – rather than in Hebrew or English – that he recognizes Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people.
He said such a statement would have a huge impact on generations to come.
Addressing Obama’s trip, Ayalon – who left his position as deputy foreign minister on Tuesday – said he expected there would be an attempt to jump-start the diplomatic process, and that this might be done with a three-way summit meeting between Netanyahu, Abbas and Obama, or perhaps even a four-way meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II.
The Prime Minister’s Office said they have not heard of any plans for such a summit.
Ayalon said Obama’s visit would once again put the US president in the position of leading the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process, and that the trip would pave the way for new US Secretary of State John Kerry to continue negotiations between the parties.
“If the president’s visit does not yield results, it will raise a lot of doubts and criticism,” he said.
#1 by Blake on February 11, 2013 - 7:56 pm
So return to Moldova then you whiny thieving murdering war criminal thug
#2 by Mark Propheter on February 11, 2013 - 11:46 pm
I like that picture of him in this article. I’m serious! It is a excellent rendering of psychotic social pathic Jew. With superiority complex.
#3 by Bob on February 12, 2013 - 2:54 am
“It is impossible to solve the conflict, it needs to be managed.”
BINGO! This is the most honest statement you will ever get from an Israeli politician. The Israelis have no interest in “peace”. Peace means stability…which means an end to Jewish expansion. The Israelis fear peace more than anything else. What they prefer is to “manage” the violence with a view toward creating pretexts for further expansion.
Think about it from the Israeli perspective. What in the world could the Palestinians offer them in exchange for “peace” which the Israelis cannot take any time they choose to? The idea of the Palestinians “negotiating” with the Israelis is ludicrous. They can no more “negotiate” with the Israelis than a prisoner in GITMO can “negotiate” with the commander of the detention faciility.
When the Israelis talk about “negotiations” what they mean is an opportunity for the Palestinians to concede legitimacy to what the Israelis have already taken…and to facilitate the continuation of the occupation in the least costly manner (to the Israelis) as possible. The Israelis made “peace” with the Egyptians only when the Egyptians proved to be a credible military threat. They made “peace” with the Jordanians only to the extent that the Jordanian monarchy has submitted to Jewish power, utterly. They refused to make peace with the Syrians, because the Syrians could neither mount a credible military threat, nor submit completely to Jewish power. Actually, it is unlikely that the Israelis would have made peace with the Syrians or the Lebanese, no matter how many concessions either country was willing to make…for the same reasons that the Israelis aren’t interested in peace with the Palestinians.
The Israelis anticipate expansion to the North and Northeast because…well because that is where the water is, and because there is no credible military opposition to stop them (unlike in Egypt). The day that the Israelis determine that the Egyptians can no longer mount a credible military threat, they will begin moving to retake the Sinai and the Suez Canal. You can take that to the bank.