RI SKEPTICAL ABOUT NETANYAHU'S "PLAY OF WORDS" by Fardah

    Jakarta, June 17, 2009 (ANTARA) - The occupation of Palestine by Israel is not just a Palestinian or Israeli problem nor a mere Middle East issue but a matter of  world-wide concern as reflected by the fact that  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech last Sunday (June 14) drew comments from  many sides of the globe.

        After decades of occupying Palestine, Netanyahu said for the first time that Israel would endorse a 'limited Palestinian state', on condition the future Palestinian state did not have an army, and recognized Israel as a Jewish state - another way of saying Palestinian refugees must give up their hopes of returning to lost homes inside Israel.

        He also said Israel  would keep control over  all of Jerusalem and building Jewish settlements on land claimed by  Palestinians, despite a US demand for a complete freeze.

        Commenting on the supposed 'peace' speech, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said  on Tuesday Israel's  conditions for a two-state solution could not possibly be met by Palestine.

       "It will even only disrupt efforts to revive dialogues and negotiations between Palestine and Israel," he said responding to  questions on the recent Israeli statement about Palestinian independence.

        Teuku Faizasyah, a spokesman of the Indonesian foreign affairs ministry, said earlier as quoted by the Jakarta Post, that Netanyahu's speech  'lacked clear direction." He even questioned if Israel's  about-face was 'sincere'.

         "The Palestinians have the right to fight against oppression by any means, including the use of weapons," he said. He also questioned the implications of Israel's request that the Palestinians recognize the Jewishness of Israel.

         "Does it mean the Palestinian refugees will be denied their right to return to their homeland and non-Jewish people will not be allowed to live in Israel?" he said.

        Meanwhile, Theo Sambuaga, chairman of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR)'s Commission I (on foreign and defense affairs), told ANTARA on Monday (June 15), an independent Palestine must include all state instruments including military.

        Sambuaga said what was important now was supporting efforts to settle the Middle East problem peacefully based on the principle of Palestinian independence with full territorial integrity and existing  peacefully side by side with Israel.

        "Palestinian independence without soldiers is not right and I do not agree with it," he said.

         "Settle the problem through negotiations. Our principle is   Palestinian independence with territorial integrity, termination of resettlement developments and peaceful coexistence," he said.

        Commission I member Almuzzamil Yusup meanwhile said that if it had to meet Netanyahu's requirements Palestine would actually be not a state but a mere province of Israel.

         Hamdan Basyar, a lecturer at the University of Indonesia's Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, even doubted Israel's peace rhetoric.

         "They agree to endorse a Palestinian state, but they also want to have it under their control," he said.

         The speech was nothing but a compromise Netanyahu had to make as he was now facing  pressure from two sides : one from the hardliners inside his right-leaning coalition government and the other from the United States, once Israel's strongest backer before US President Barack Obama took office and bid to mend the US image after eight years of George Bush's reckless foreign policy, he said as reported by The Jakarta Post.   
    He said Obama should not be easily convinced  by Netanyahu's speech which overlooked the main issues such as the freezing of Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank which had undermined the peace process and the creation of a Palestinian state.

       "Obama must not let Israel go forward with their agenda. A Palestinian state without  military power to defend itself is useless."
   Meanwhile, on a separate occasion, Hamdan Basyar told ANTARA that Netanyahu's speech on Palestinian independence was just a "play of words" void of any sincerity.

        Basyar called on the United Nations to revise its veto right system as it was no longer relevant to support the efforts to achieve world peace. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1991, the UN imposed sanctions on the former but the UN failed to do so against Israel. Therefore, a revision of the UN veto right system was needed, he said.

         Azyumardi Azra, a Middle Eastern political observer of the Jakarta-based University of  Syarif Hidayatullah, said  Indonesia should support  Palestinian independence without having to meet the conditions stated by Netanyahu.

         "Indonesia must support  Palestinian independence as mandated by the Constitution (UUD) of 1945," he said Monday. He also asked the US and other Western countries to pressure Israel on  unconditional recognition of  Palestinian independnence.

        "A country's military is its internal affair. Israel must not interfere in the presence of a Palestinian military," he said.

        Meanwhile, a senior politician of the Muslim-based National Mandate Party (PAN), Abdillah Toha, slammed Netanyahu's speech, saying "it is not a speech of peace".

        The Israeli leader, he said, had instead "slammed the door to peace" by rejecting the conditions deemed essential to achieving a two-state solution.  "The speech's substance is basically against Obama's two-state solution," he said.

         "But then Obama has to face challenges in his own country on the issue. We know how strong the Jewish lobby in the US is," said Abdillah Toha who is also a member of the DPR's Commission I, as quoted by the Jakarta Post.

         In Washington, Robert Gibbs, a spokesman for President Barack Obama, welcomed Netanyahu's conditional acceptance of Palestinian statehood as an "important step forward." But he suggested more needs to be done, saying the US would work with all sides to make sure they fulfill the obligations "necessary to achieve a two-state solution."
   Harsher responses came from Palestine and other Arab countries, which even considered Netanyahu's speech 'racist'.

        "Netanyahu wants to put us in a situation where he looks like he offered something, and we said no," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said. "Netanyahu's speech was very clear. He rejects the two-state solution," he said.

        Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a key mediator between Israel and the Palestinians, said Netanyahu's demands "will further complicate the situation and scuttle any chance of peace," according to the state news agency MENA.

        Saudi Arabia's state-run Al-Nadwa daily said "every paragraph of Netanyahu's speech makes us more pessimistic." The Arab League's undersecretary general for Palestinian affairs, Mohammed Sobeih, said the speech might satisfy "extremists in Israel" but was "too far from what peace needs."
    In Jordan, the pro-government Al-Rai daily ran an editorial titled, "Netanyahu offered rotten merchandise. Nobody will buy it."
    Former US President Jimmy Carter who brokered the landmark 1979 treaty between Egypt and Israel, criticized key points in the speech - Netanyahu's intention to keep all of Jerusalem and his demand for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, which Carter said would make it hard for Obama to rally Arab support.

        Carter reserved his harshest words for the Israeli settlements. "If Israeli continues to expand the settlements," he said, "then the prospects for peace will be greatly diminished, if not made almost impossible."
   "Netanyahu is talking about negotiations about cantons - the canton of the state of Palestine, with a flag and an anthem, a state without borders, without sovereignty, without a capital," Erekat said.

         Some considered the speech 'a step forward', but some others said it was 'two step backwards'.

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