The Jerusalem Post linked the 10-minute video below from a 1978 episode of the PBS show "The Advocate," in which a 28-year old “Ben Nitay” (whose name before and later was Benjamin Netanyahu) appeared as a witness testifying about the creation of a Palestinian state. After his direct examination by Morris Abrams, he is cross-examined by Fouad Ajami.
On the video, Netanyahu testifies there is no “right” to a 22nd Arab state (and a 2nd Palestinian one after Jordan) if such a state would endanger the only Jewish one. He questions whether self-determination is at the heart of the Middle East conflict: “For 20 years the Arabs had both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and if self-determination was, as they now say, the core of the conflict, they could have easily established a Palestinian state, but they didn't. . . . What we're talking about here is not the attempt to build a state but to destroy one.”
Palestinian history since then demonstrates that Netanyahu was right. In 2000, the Palestinians received a formal offer of a state on more than 90 percent of the West Bank (with a capital in Jerusalem) and turned it down, starting a new war two months later. In 2001, the Palestinians turned down the Clinton Parameters, which would have given them a state on 97 percent of the West Bank, in favor of continuing their war. In 2003, the Palestinians signed on to the Roadmap and then refused to meet their Phase I obligation of dismantling their terrorist organizations and infrastructure. In 2005, the Palestinians were given all of Gaza (with every settlement dismantled) and used the territory to increase their attacks on Israel. In 2006, the Palestinians elected their premier terrorist group to control their government.
In June 2007, three decades after the 1978 debate, Fouad Ajami wrote in U.S. News & World Report (as Hamas took over Gaza completely in a brutal coup) that:
The Palestinians have lived, and for decades now, on a sense of historical entitlement. The world owed them a state come what may; it would be delivered to them even when their leaders faltered, even as they fell afoul of international norms and expectations. . . . In the intervening years, the "Palestinian street" would be whipped into a frenzy, and the anarchy and the cruelty of the homicide bombers would become a diet for the Palestinians -- and for a wider Arab audience that lived, vicariously, on the mayhem of Palestine. . . . Given a chance, by an election in early 2006, to signal their desire for normalcy, the Palestinians voted for mayhem. . . . National movements are often carried away by delirium, their politics can become deeds of self-immolation, and the Palestinians have come to embody the suicidal streak of mass-based nationalism. This is not a failure of the Bush diplomacy, the disorder now on full display in Gaza and the West Bank. This is the harvest of Palestinian history.The Jerusalem Post reported yesterday that Netanyahu refused the demands of two coalition partners to insert a clause against a Palestinian state in the coalition agreement, and his current position is remarkably close to the one he outlined in the 1978 debate:
In recent weeks Netanyahu has been telling international leaders that the Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves, but not the handful of powers that could endanger Israel's security, such as an army, the right to make defensive treaties, or full control over its air space, water supply or electromagnetic spectrum. . . . Sources close to Netanyahu said . . . the burden of proof in the peace process remained with the Palestinians, and that the Palestinian leadership must show that they were not only able to mouth words in English, but also educate their public toward making the ideological compromises that would be needed for any agreement.If self-government were really the issue, and not an attempt to move Israel to indefensible borders and overwhelm (or de-legitimate) it with a “right of return,” this would be an effective peace plan. But Palestinian history demonstrates that the devil has always been in the “if," and the burden to prove the contrary long ago shifted to the Palestinians.
B.N.'s search for Palestinian truth shows a thinly guised antagonism towards Jews. I believe this prejudice toward Jews will not be dissolved by mortal men. Loss of favor by God(Garden of Eden), Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is today revealed disguised as Nationalism. In the event they succeed in overcoming Israel, the Messiah will become their last hope.
Posted by: Bobertbobert | March 30, 2009 at 05:36 AM