Weighing Netanyahu as Peace Maker

[groovedaddy]

JERUSALEM — A month ago, Aluf Benn, a senior columnist at the left-leaning Israeli newspaper Haaretz, wrote an article that shocked many. He said he believed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud party, was seriously interested in making concessions to the Palestinians and coming to an agreement on a two-state solution.

“Nothing I have ever written has caused as much controversy,” Mr. Benn said in a telephone interview. “Colleagues, politicians and friends all said, ‘How can you believe him?’ ”

After a long career supporting Israeli settlements in occupied land and rejecting Palestinian statehood, Mr. Netanyahu said last June that he accepted the two-state idea. Three weeks ago, he imposed a 10-month freeze on building Jewish housing in the West Bank, something no Israeli leader had done before. Settlers are outraged, and Mr. Netanyahu is facing a rebellion in his party. Together with his removal of many West Bank checkpoints and barriers to Palestinian movement and economic growth, these steps went well beyond what many ever expected of him.

Yet skepticism would be a polite way of describing the reaction of the Palestinians and much of the world, who view his steps as either too little too late or a ruse aimed at buying time to pursue his real agenda.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/world/middleeast/16mideast.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

[Ozymanithrax]

1. Some things must be seen, photographed, and cast in concrete to believe...

I will believe Bibi is a peacemaker when an agreement is signed and he wins the Nobel Peace Prize, which will probably happen shortly after Kosher pigs fly.

But, hey, it is a strange strange world where anything can happen.

[LeftishBrit]

2. Agreed...

though one wouldn't have expected Begin and Sadat to be peacemakers either. So anything can happen as you say. But particularly unlikely in the case of Bibi.

[Violet_Crumble]

3. I doubt the world will ever be that strange...

There are things that just won't happen, and that's one of them...

[Ken Burch]

4. Well, you have to admire the optimism, I guess

Still, it's expecting a lot.

At this point, Netanyahu is a Nixon who WON'T go to China.