The Non-Peace Plan

“No” to the 1967 borders, “no” to a divided Jerusalem, “no” to the right of return for refugees. In his speech to the U.S. Congress, Netanyahu’s “yes” to a Palestinian state was surrounded by a ring of conditions, thereby pushing the prospects for peace far into the background.

The higher one sets the bar, the easier it is to ensure it cannot be jumped. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proved that in his appearance before the U.S. Congress. He had previously widely announced that he would deliver a special speech there containing no less than a new Israeli peace plan. He then actually delivered his proposals with verve and pathos for which he was wildly cheered by U.S. House and Senate members. The truth is, however, that he ran full steam ahead beneath the bar and did not even come close to jumping over it.

Netanyahu’s supposed peace plan offered nothing substantially new and merely cast all the old ideas in concrete. His embellished “yes” to a Palestinian state was encircled, fortress-like, with a ring of preconditions: “no” to a return to the 1967 borders, “no” a divided Jerusalem and “no” to a right of return for Palestinian refugees.

He announced his intentions to keep whatever he pleases in the West Bank, and he also insisted on a permanent Israeli military presence there. Everything he proposed remains miles behind the demands of the Palestinians and the American and European ideas for the region.

Netanyahu will nevertheless be able to book his six-day trip to the United States as a great success. First, he did everything he had to do to preserve the status quo in the Middle East – he confronted the U.S. president, heaped flattery on congressional members and displayed steely resolve and flexibility simultaneously. He can return in triumph to Israel. He won the propaganda battle, but he also pushed peace further and further away.