# 184 – Netanyahu in USA

May 25, 2011

Lots of speeches recently. King Abdullah here, Abbas there, then Omama in Ireland, the Queen in Ireland, both Obama and then Netanyahu speaking to AIPAC (the powerful US-Israel lobby in Washington), Netanyahu speaking to Congress and, later today, Obama speaking to both Houses of Parliament.

Who says what to whom is becoming a fun subject.

Where was I…..Oh yes, Netanyahu. (And the Palestinians’ reaction, such as Nabil Shaath on CNN yesterday).

I agree almost 100% with Netanyahu’s statements of fact. But his speech (and his chat later on CNN with Wolf Blitzer) misses the ‘politically correct’ point.

When a Jew marries a non-Jew, the Jews presume that they have lost a Jew – that they will assimilate. They rarely look at it from the optimistic point of view: that the non-Jew might go the other way.

Same thing here. Instead of telling Fatah that they should tear up the agreement with Hamas and sign one with Israel, we should be telling Fatah to use that pact with Hamas to change their minds about Israel. And when (not if) they succeed in politically persuading Hamas to accept Israel’s existence, then we SHALL talk to them.

We have to put the onus on them to be the good guys. Let them denounce hatred, terrorism, etc. In practice, it will more than likely make little difference. But we have to play the political game with more finesse. Stop making them look the good guys.

I cringed at the untruths that were spewing out of Shaath’s mouth – especially knowing that many viewers believe/accept the untruths as facts. They talk about 1967 borders, they talk about establishing a State of Palestine in September. They conveniently forget that this is what the UN demanded of the World (including the Arab World) in 1947.

That there be 2 states in the region for the 2 peoples. The Israelis accepted. The Arabs did not. They have continued to be against Israel’s existence. They have waged several wars to try to annihilate Israel, one of which was based on the very borders that they now claim to accept. Why should Israel now believe them?

Politics…

Stephen