Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Un successo di Bibi, anzi due

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/09/27/netanyahu-diplomacy-france-spain/
 
 
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is often accused of
diplomatic incompetence. And if you think the goal of diplomacy is to
be loved, it’s hard to dispute this: Netanyahu is loathed by leaders
worldwide.
 
But if you think the goal of diplomacy is to get other countries to
adopt your country’s positions, then Netanyahu has had some surprising
successes recently.
 
In July, France became the first European country to publicly adopt a
position every Israeli government has deemed essential for Israeli-
Palestinian peace, but which Europe consistently refused to endorse:
that any agreement must result in “two nation-states,” including “the
nation-state of Israel for the Jewish people.”
 
And last week, one of the most pro-Palestinian countries in Europe not
only followed suit, but broke new ground. Addressing the UN General
Assembly on Saturday, Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez first
declared Spain’s “commitment” to Israel as “a homeland of the Jewish
people” – a position Madrid opposed as recently as July. Then she
added something that, again, all Israeli governments have deemed
essential for peace, but Europe has never been willing to state
openly: Any solution to the Palestinian refugee problem must “be just
and agreed,” while also “allowing the preservation of Israel’s current
character.” In other words, the Palestinian goal of relocating the
refugees to Israel is out.
 
It’s hard to overstate the significance of this shift. For years, the
EU has demanded a host of specific Israeli concessions on final-status
issues (borders, Jerusalem, etc.) while adamantly refusing to demand
any Palestinian concessions. Hence, every statement it issued
reiterated a formula carefully crafted to avoid offending Palestinian
sensibilities. It called for two states, Israel and Palestine, with no
elaboration on the nature of the former, thus leaving open the
possibility of an “Israel” transformed into a binational or
Palestinian-majority state by an influx of millions of refugee
descendants, as Palestinians want. And it urged “an agreed, just, fair
and realistic solution” to the refugee issue, without specifying that
the Palestinians’ preferred solution of resettling them all in Israel
doesn’t qualify.
 
This enabled Palestinians to continue fantasizing that the world would
keep demanding ever more concessions from Israel without ever
demanding anything of them. After all, the West is more supportive of
Israel than the rest of the world, so what Europe won’t demand, non-
Western countries certainly won’t. Moreover, Europe is the Palestinian
Authority’s main financial backer, which gives its positions special
importance.
 
But now that one of Europe’s most pro-Palestinian countries has broken
ranks, other EU states could well follow suit. That in turn could
change the dynamics of the international Quartet, where the EU has
traditionally sided with Russia and the UN against the U.S.
 
It’s no accident this U-turn happened under the “intransigent”
Netanyahu rather than his more conciliatory predecessors: His
“intransigence” is precisely what convinced France and Spain that
progress will require accommodating Israel’s demands as well, and not
only those of the Palestinians. The upshot is that two key European
states have now adopted a vital Israeli position.
 
Not bad for an incompetent diplomat.

 Not bad for an incompetent diplomat.
 
 
Quoto.
Ma prima che lo scrivesse "Commentary", il livello pericolosamente alto di
trucioli rossobruni  aveva detto già molto.
 
-- 
Io non gufo l'Inter. Le spacco le corna.

 worldwide.
 
"non mi fa male, non mi fa male"