Editorial
Return to 1967 ME borders
Netanyahu's rejection impedes peace
The differences which have cropped up between Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu over the former's Middle East pronouncements are misplaced. Israel's hawkish prime minister has unnecessarily tried to push the reality under the carpet. The reality is that a solution to the Palestinian issue demands Israel's return to the borders that existed prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The standard argument here is UN Security Council Resolution 242, adopted soon after the war, demanding that Israel go back to its earlier geographical position by vacating all territories it occupied in the course of the Six-Day war.
That any question of a solution to the Middle East problem rests on a return to the pre-1967 realities has also been an article of faith with successive American administrations, particularly since Bill Clinton's, when the United States brokered a deal between Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin in the mid 1990s. Therefore, when President Obama publicly called for a peace deal to be shaped around the pre-1967 borders, he was only reiterating what has long been American policy. Besides, he also made it clear that such a deal would need to guarantee mutually agreed swaps of territory, which could be a subtle way of letting Israel hang on to the illegal settlements it has built on the West Bank. It cannot be expected that Palestinians will agree to having a state for themselves that will be a throwback to the 'bantustans' created in apartheid-era South Africa. For Israel's prime minister to dismiss the Obama initiative is really to complicate matters, for the attitude suggests Israel's unwillingness to give up territory it has long occupied in clear, brazen defiance of international law. Additionally, Israel's unwillingness to negotiate with a Palestinian authority which includes Hamas is a patent excuse on Netanyahu's part to have the crisis prolonged. It ought to be the Palestinians' prerogative as to who they want to represent them in government and in dealings with nations abroad.
Mr. Netanyahu should not expect the world's sympathy for his belligerence. For President Obama, the emphasis must now be on pushing his plan harder if the projected Palestinian state is to be a reality.
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