Netanyahu softens his stance
20-Jun-2009

Benjamin Netanyahu's endorsement of the idea of a Palestinian state comes after months of intense pressure from the Obama White House, which therefore had little option but to welcome it as “an important step forward”.

But Israel's prime minister has loaded that endorsement with so many conditions that it is difficult to see the intervention doing much in the short term to break the current deadlock.

The Palestinian state he envisages would have no armed forces, no means of importing weapons and no control of its airspace. This would be a stunted sort of sovereignty but the real sticking point as far as the Palestinians are concerned relates not to their status, but to Israel's

For Mr Netanyahu is insisting that for a two-state solution to be viable, there has to be a “public, binding and unequivocal Palestinian recognition of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people”.

This requirement goes beyond Israel's traditional demand that neighbouring states recognise its right to exist.

It is anathema to many Palestinians for it is seen as discriminatory to the 20 per cent of Israelis who are not Jewish. Similarly, Mr Netanyahu ruled out the idea of Palestinian refugees resettling in Israel or of Jerusalem becoming a joint capital.

As for the vexed issue of Israel's settlements on the West Bank, the prime minister did not make any concessions to Washington's increasingly strident demands for a total freeze.

Mr Netanyahu has calculated that by putting on the record his acceptance of a two-state solution, no matter how hedged about by conditions, he has done enough to take the diplomatic heat off, for the moment.

He is probably right. Palestinian leaders say they are unimpressed while Hamas predictably claimed that the statement showed that Palestinians will not win concessions from Israel through negotiation.

But for all the caveats, it remains significant that Israel's hard-line leader has for the first time in his career accepted the concept of Palestinian statehood, and that is progress.