Israeli MPs Slam Netanyahu Intransigence

The USG Open Source Center translates reactions from opposition members of parliament (the Knesset) in Israel to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s blunt rejection of President Obama’s speech on the Middle East.

‘ Opposition Parliamentarians Charge Netanyahu’s Policies Harmful to Israel
Voice of Israel Network B
Friday, May 20, 2011 …
Document Type: OSC Translated Text

Qadima MK Sha’ul Mofaz, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said that Prime Minister Netanyahu today brought Israel one more step closer to international isolation. Only 24 hours since the start of his visit, Netanyahu managed to deepen the crisis with our best friend, and in less than 12 hours managed to strength the belief that Israel under his leadership refuses peace. Mofaz also said that the prime minister is leading Israel into an unprecedented diplomatic confrontation with the United States and a violent clash with the Palestinians whose outcome will be difficult and painful. Instead of moving toward a confrontation we should move toward elections, Mofaz said.

Meretz MK Zahava Gal’on said that Netanyahu’s dispute with Obama over the 1967 lines contradicts Israel’s interest. She said it meets only the needs of the extreme right-wing coalition, which wants to build in the territories and deepen the occupation.

(Description of Source: Jerusalem Voice of Israel Network B in Hebrew — State-funded radio, independent in content) ‘

Kadima is a center-right Israeli party that broke with the ruling Likud Party over its members’ unease with Likud expansionism in the Palestinian territories and a fear that over time a Greater Israel would make Jews into a minority because so many Palestinians would have been absorbed along with their land. The ruling Israeli Right wing has an answer to this anxiety, which is to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians and deprive Palestinian-Israelis of citizenship, so that the land could be usurped without the people. This latter policy strikes Kadima as impractical and as guaranteeing a lot of trouble, though Kadima is not in favor of returning to 1967 borders or of seeing a Palestinian state established any time soon. Meretz is a center-left liberal party that wants a two-state solution and would probably accept 1967 borders.