UPDATES 7 pm Israel time Monday:
*In the last few minutes there has been a terrorist shooting incident in Beitar Illit.
*There have been numerous Molotov cocktail attacks on Israelis and Israeli security forces in the last 24 hours.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Yair Lapid, Israel’s new Finance Minister who has incurred the displeasure of many of his new constituents by proposing draconian cuts to the budget and increased taxes that will severely impact the lower and middle economic classes, has dangerously jumped headfirst into the Israel concession process to the Palestinians (aka the “peace process”) by proposing an “interim” agreement.
In an hourlong interview with the international press reported in Yediot Aharonot, Lapid offered the rather disjointed plan that Israel should NOT change its policy in Judea and Samaria (of course the only policy that Israel has is to freeze all construction) and NOT agree that Jerusalem should be the capital of a Palestinian state, but that Israel should agree to a Palestinian state with temporary borders.
Will this interim state bring peace? Of course not. Because as Lapid points out, the “problems” of Jerusalem and the so-called 5,000,000+ Palestinian “refugees” will not be resolved.
And are the Palestinians ready for such an agreement? Of course not. As Lapid points out: “Abu Mazen is still not mentally prepared for an agreement with Israel – not for a full agreement and not for a partial one.”
Are you, dear reader, following any of this? I wonder, because your humble servant certainly is not.
What on earth would be the point of such an interim agreement? There is no point. It would merely give away more Israeli land and to put more Israeli lives in danger. Palestinian attacks on Israelis would increase as would international opprobrium.
Nevertheless, Lapid would have us believe (and it is probably true) that his Yesh Atid Party, Netanyahu’s Likud Beiteinu party, and Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua party have more than enough votes to push through such an agreement–in conjunction with Meretz and all the Arab parties (Lapid, by the way, does not favor a popular referendum on an Israeli-Palestinian “peace” agreement).
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But, according to Lapid, what would happen in the Palestinians reject “temporary borders”?
Lapid notes what israelstreet has been reporting on for the last six months--namely that Netanyahu has dramatically turned to the Left, a move that has rapidly accelerated following the death of Netanyahu’s father:
“Netanyahu is currently fighting for his place in Israeli history, and he also understands that this place will not be influenced by this or that response to a mortar shell fired from Gaza, but by his ability, as a leader, to reach a lasting agreement with the Palestinian people. This is why it is safe to assume that he will ‘go for it.'”
This or that response to a mortar shell fired from Gaza? Never mind for the moment this crass throwing of southern Israel under the bus, what is it that Netanyahu is apparently getting ready to do?
According to other sources cited in the Yedioth article, Netanyahu is prepared to follow in the footsteps of Ehud Barak in Lebanon, and Ariel Sharon in Gaza–and simply make a unilateral withdrawal from Judea and Samaria. Obviously, this plan would call for the evacuation of more than 100,000 Jews–because Mahmoud Abbas, the PLO, and Hamas have all made it clear that a new Palestinian state must be ethnically cleansed of all Jews.
According to Lapid, such a “relocation” would be heartbreaking but necessary.
What is really heartbreaking is the “surrender mentality” of Israel’s leaders. It is a surrender mentality that is on the verge of leading Israel to disaster.
(israelstreet acknowledges Sever Plocker’s “Interim Deal on Road to Statehood” that appeared in Yediot Aharonot this morning for elements of this blog).
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.