False Dichotomies

Public pronouncements by Israeli leaders quickly get canonised. As a result, its worth occasionally commenting on them. Today there were some encouraging words from Meir Sheetrit, (Kadima) Minister of Construction and Housing, and Acting Justice Minister.

According to Haaretz, Sheetrit urged that Israel open negotiations with the Saudis based on the Arab League initiative. This doesn’t mean that Sheetrit supports all the parameters of the initiative, but he certainly sees them as the basis for negotiations:

“If we are speaking of a full peace, we want a full peace, [but] we don’t necessarily have to accept every detail and initiative on a withdrawal to the 1967 lines. We’ll have to talk about this. But let us talk…Abu Mazen could be invited to this discussion, to have a concrete discussion and finally, once and for all, to finish the matter one way or another. In other words, if you want peace, ahlan wasahlan we welcome you, we are prepared to make far-reaching concessions and to fix the permanent borders of the State of Israel.”

Don’t get too carried away though. Government spokeswoman Miri Eisen quickly nixed the idea: “These are not the Israeli government’s ideas. These are his ideas.”

Elsewhere, more than 100 ex-world leaders have urged an Arab-Israeli peace summit. The petition declares that “everyone has lost in this conflict except the extremists throughout the world who prosper on the rage that it continues to provoke…The goal must be security and full recognition to the State of Israel within internationally recognised borders, an end to the occupation for the Palestinian people in a viable independent, sovereign state, and the return of lost land to Syria.” Signatories include former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, former U.S President Jimmy Carter and ex-NATO commander U.S. General Wesley Clark. You can view the whole petition here.