The rules of the game are simple: any Jewish concession becomes immediately an accepted law of the land, any Jewish conditions are portrayed as impediments to peace and proof of fanatical recalcitrance. Question for players -- should one play a game where all the rules are changed by the other side at will? Can one win such a game?
Haaretz:
By Cnaan Liphshiz
By next year, nothing will remain of the demilitarization stipulation that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has set for the formation of a Palestinian state, Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau warned on Tuesday at an event sponsored by Yisrael Beiteinu in Jerusalem.
"My fear is that in a few months from now, no one will remember what Netanyahu said about demilitarization," Landau said. "They will only register the fact that the head of the National Camp in Israel supports the formation of a Palestinian state."
The national infrastructure minister nonetheless praised Netanyahu for articulating the precondition and for beginning his recent foreign policy speech at Bar Ilan University on Sunday with the assertion that Jews were entitled to live in an independent, Jewish state in the Land of Israel because of their biblical heritage.
"I was proud to hear Netanyahu's speech because he said we deserve this land according to the Bible," said Landau, a former Likud member who switched over to Avigdor Lieberman's party, Yisrael Beiteinu - now Likud senior-most coalition partner.
Landau's statements may be seen as a reaction to U.S. President Barack Obama?s recent speech in Cairo, in which he linked the right of Jews to a Jewish state to the murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust.
Landau was speaking in English before a predominantly American-Israeli crowd of 100 people at Cafe Joe in the center of the capital. He devoted part of his speech to defending Yisrael Beiteinu's contested initiative to require all citizens to pledge their allegiance to the state.
"The Israeli Arabs have every right in the country, and none on it," he said. "We are proposing to apply the loyalty oath to everyone. Many countries, including the U.S., require new immigrants, for example, to swear their allegiance."
Introducing more nationalistic values into the school system with a greater emphasis on flag and anthem, Landau said, would make Israel "a stronger country." In this context, Landau mentioned that as things stand now, "Arab figures but also Jews stand up against us at times of trial."
"The attempt of the highly respected U.S. President Barack Obama to introduce symmetry into his attitude to the region is erroneous," Landau said. "There is no symmetry between those who observe human and civil rights, and those who hand out candies when Israelis and Americans die in horrible suicide attacks, as we have seen in September 2001." [link]
posted by: jrtelegraph

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