NY Times urges Netanyahu to 'stop playing games'

[Scurrilous]

Editorial accuses prime minister of choosing domestic politics over peace

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3983869,00.html

<snip>

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prefers to maintain his coalition over making peace with the Palestinians, the New York Times charges.

"It’s time for him to stop playing games, reinstate the moratorium, get back to negotiations and engage seriously in a peace deal," the paper said in a scathing editorial.

The PM "spent a lot of time trying to persuade President Obama and others that he was serious about making peace with the Palestinians," the NY Times wrote. "Only a hard-liner, like him, could pull it off. If only."

The article, titled "Politics over peace," argues that at this time it doesn't look like Israel's' prime minister is willing to make the "hard choices" needed to secure a peace agreement.

"What is evident is that he has decided that mugging for his hard-line coalition is more important than working with President Obama to craft a peace deal," the paper says."


Politics Over Peace

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/opinion/13sat1.html?_r=1&hp

[Philly219]

1. I really wish he would

Its time to stop the bullshit and the settlers from building. We need peace in that region. I'd like to see it in my lifetime. I'd like to see some of the hatred for Israel dissipated (I know all of it will never go away). And, I want to see the muslims satisfied that their Palistinians have their own homeland.

[orion007]

2. Here's a phyc profile that was done on Bibi that's a very interesting, a long

read, and a very long one at that..


http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:DJCT0dHjJa4J:nssc.haifa.ac.il/files/benjamin.doc+bibi+netanyahu+1993+girlfriend&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

[orion007]

3. Bibi's profile isn't coming up on my last post so just google "netanyahu

profile kimhi" and it downloads very fast.

[LeftishBrit]

4. I agree; he should

Unfortunately, even if he were prepared to do so, he's under pressure from some serious nutcases in the coalition.

[oberliner]

5. Will the coaltion hold?

Methinks another election may be in order soon.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

6. I think that is probably overoptimistic.

It *may* be Bibi's Damascene conversion from hardline opposition to any "concessions", up to and including a Palestinian state, to seemingly being willing to talk peace (although still not to actually make any meaningful offers) is genuine, but I think; I think it would be grossly naive to believe so.

I think it far more likely that Bibi's coalition is "pressuring" him to do exactly what he wants, and that he is merely using them as a cover.


I also don't think there is any reason to assume that an election in Israel would yield a more left-wing Knesset than the current one - the Israeli left is a tiny, hated minority.

[oberliner]

7. The Israeli left won the election and is the party that received the most votes

Had Israel a similar system to ours, Livni would currently be running the show, the crazy religious parties would have little to no influence, and a peace agreement would most likely have already been reached by now.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

8. The Israeli left won less than 20 seats in the Knesset.

And that's only if you count Labour, which is a historically left-wing party currently supporting right-wing policies.

Kadima was founded by Ariel Sharon. It's centre-right, not left-wing.