Haaretz daily published this week that PM Netanyahu is calling for negotiation about the settlement blocs. We see it as a dangerous initiative that is meant to deceive the public by pretending to have some kind of a political process that would ease the opposition and international pressure and to would portray the Palestinians as the refusniks to the peace talks.
- No Blocs without Swaps – There cannot be an agreement about the borders of the blocs without an agreement about the lands that would be swapped in return.
- No Blocs without Jerusalem – there cannot be an agreement about the borders of the blocs without an agreement about Jerusalem which is a central part of what Israel wants to include in those blocs.
- Why not negotiate final status – If Netanyahu was sincerely ready to a line of settlement blocs that can be acceptable by the Palestinians (blocs that will allow the establishment of a viable Palestinian state, which are far from what Netanyahu has in mind for “the blocs”), this would mean that he could actually reach a final status agreement.
Netanyahu knows very well that the Palestinians cannot agree to any line of the blocs short of a line that will allow for the establishment of a viable Palestinian state. By his offer to negotiate the blocs he is trying to create the impression that he is ready for peace and for talks but the Palestinians, who will surely oppose it, are the ones refusing to peace. That’s a dangerous deception.
Read the full analysis of Netanyahu’s policy in Hagit Ofran’s article in Haaretz, 1/6/15.
The blocs (in red) presented by Olmert in the Annapolis negotiations, vs. the blocs (in blue) agreed upon by the Geneva initiative