Word: netanyahu
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...West Bank settlers identified by the U.S. President as an obstacle to Middle East peace were expecting Bibi Netanyahu to support their cherished dream of an Israel stretching from the Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea, they were disappointed on Sunday night. The right-wing leader instead took a sharp and unexpected lurch to the center and said he would support a two-state solution, meaning something called Palestine is a step closer to being inked onto their 3,000-year-old biblical...
...credit, clench-jawed Netanyahu could have used the re-election of Israel's favorite bogeyman, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in Iran to raise the usual security alarms and resort to time-tested fear-mongering. But in his speech, he mentioned Iran only briefly. (See a story about how Tehran's streets have become a battleground...
...Middle East, change is measured in centuries, and dusty diplomatic phrases from talks 10 and 15 years back remain verbal screens for inaction long after the hopes they represent have been abandoned and the men who crafted them have retired to Cambridge and Palo Alto. For a hawk like Netanyahu to plainly say he supports a separate Palestine has the potential to redraw the political map, if not the geographical one. (See pictures of 60 years of Israel...
...Netanyahu may be moving to reposition himself, or, at least, to rebrand his position. He's likely to make some concessions in easing the siege of Gaza by allowing more goods in to enable a reconstruction that has thus far been prevented by the Israeli blockade. And he'll also likely take down one or two outposts built without permission by Israeli zealots outside of the boundaries of their existing settlements. Such actions will provoke televised clashes between settlers and police, and make the case that Netanyahu is acting on the settlement issue (without necessarily stopping construction within the boundaries...
...reports from sources close to the Prime Minister say the speech, over which he is still consulting allies, will embrace a limited, conditional version of the two-state solution, but will at the same time push back against the call for a settlement freeze. Nobody knows yet exactly what Netanyahu will say in his effort to harmonize his government's positions with Washington's - but it's a safe bet that he won't be threatening America with sanctions...