Nothing new from netanyahu mrn
Nothing new from Netanyahu: MRN
Far from being a groundbreaking new policy initiative, Israel’s rightwing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recast shallow old Zionist yarns into a narrative that lacked depth, courage and vision. This was the opinion of Iqbal Jassat, chairperson of the Media Review Network (MRN) on Sunday evening in response to a speech by Netanyahu wherein he called for the creation of a demilitarised Palestinian state as the key to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
But according to Jassat, the speech was all “smoke and mirrors”, a forced response to US President Barack Obama’s demands on Israel to place an immediate freeze on settlements and to accept the legitimacy of Palestinian rights in the shape of two-states. “Netanyahu failed to pull any rabbits out of a hat. In what appears to be a speech directed more at rightwing zealots in his coalition government and hardline Zionist settlers, whom he referred to as ‘principled’, Netanyahu may have miscalculated the levels of exasperation amongst influential sectors within America and Europe.”
According to Jassat, this much was clear from comments and analysis from western capitals that swiftly concluded that Netanyahu made no major detour from Zionist ideals apart from subscribing to a watered down version of a ghetto that he repeatedly qualified as a “demilitarized” entity. “The three challenges he outlined at the start of his speech, not surprisingly included Iran as an existential threat, alongside ‘economic recession’ and ‘peace’ itself. Quite ridiculous to regard ‘peace’ as a threat, yet it demonstrates how successive Israel regimes have found political utility in displaying security vulnerability.”