Talkingpointsmemo's Josh Marshall: Fool on the Hill

[flpoljunkie]

Fool on the Hill
Josh Marshall

May 20, 2011

For years the top generals in the IDF have agreed that Israel can handle withdrawing to the 1967 borders in military terms. But PM Netanyahu says that's impossible because those borders are not defensible. It's an amazing level of denial, intransigence and self-destructiveness on display today -- something the pre-statehood and early statehood Zionist leadership was seldom so vulnerable to.

I agree with Gadi Taub who said recently that while peace is the ideal the highest priority for both peoples right now is partition. Netanyahu's position makes that impossible. The 1967 lines are the only practical and politically conceivable basis for such a division -- with mutually agreed upon swaps of territory along those lines. Netanyahu's plan is simply to withdraw from areas of dense population within the West Bank. In fact, I think that overstates the case. I don't think Netanyahu has a plan beyond holding his coalition together and himself in the prime ministership. The rejectionists' 'plan' is simply to hold on for as long as possible and play for time.

The man is a fool at so many levels. But there's no denying that he speaks for a very large chunk of the Israeli electorate.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2011/05/fool_on_the_hill.php#more?ref=fpblg

[DCBob]

1. Stupid argument those borders are not defensible..

Israel has the most powerful military and security forces in the region. Their biggest threat is a nuclear Iran and their borders have no impact on that.

[alsame]

2. Like all neocons, Bibi is more interested in

perpetual war than in peace.