MK Threatens To Topple Coalition If Netanyahu Extends Settlement Moratorium As Rumored

Summary from Kr8:

MK Katz threatens to topple the government with the assistance of members of parliament from the Likud

Following the news that "Netanyahu is considering the resumption of the construction freeze in Judea and Samaria," MK Yaakov Katz says he will connect with members of parliament from the Likud to overthrow the government. Tension in the political system for the renewal of the winter session.


Netanyahu may declare that he rejects the continued freeze on construction, but sources close to him actually believe that he will enter this week with the ministers to discuss the possibility of extending the freeze period, as required by the U.S. president from Obama.

Freeze issue will probably be debated this week, before the convening of the Arab League on Friday which should perhaps decide the fate of the negotiations. In Ma'ariv it was reported that in recent days there has been increased pressure on Prime Minister by senior ministers to hold a thorough discussion on the state of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

U.S. President Obama promised Netanyahu a series of political security guarantees in exchange for the renewal of the freeze for a period of two months but the prime minister refused this proposal. Now, it is expected that Netanyahu will try anyway to pass among the cabinet ministers or even the government a decision to renew the freeze at least two months. It is estimated the new works were begun after the expiry of the freeze will continue as usual and not be affected...

See the complete article (in hebrew) here.

This corresponds with what Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA was reporting:

Maariv correspondent Eli Brodenstein reported in the 29 September edition that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is expected to reject President Obamas offer for a variety of measures in return for a 60 day extension of the settlement construction freeze.

The article provides some details of the letter, which was written in consultation with representatives of Netanyahu.

A key element of the letter is that the American government commits to foil all Arab initiatives for the coming year to raise the matter of a Palestinian state before the UN Security Council.

The problem is that a closer look at what Obama was offering actually opens a further problem. As Prof. Lerner points out:

Most media coverage of the article was based on the headlines of the article (the headlines did not indicate that this commitment was limited to a year) and thus missed this critical flaw.

Until now, official American policy, as expressed both by President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, is that a Palestinian state could only be achieved via direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Rather than bolster this commitment, the Obama letter, if put into effect, would constitute a very significant deterioration in the American position.

Simply put, under the Obama proposal, Israel would be "rewarded" for extending the freeze by 60 days by having an American gun put to the Jewish State's forehead with the warning: "make a deal with the Palestinians within a year or the Palestinians will unilaterally be rewarded with a
sovereign Palestinians state".

The introduction of this American threat would irreparably doom the prospects of Israel actually reaching an agreement with the Palestinians during the course of the negotiations since the Palestinians would know that they bring to the UNSC whatever Israeli concession were put on the table during the course of the year when they go to the USNC for an imposed solution.

And along with the carrot, no matter how small, comes a stick:

Brodenstein adds that Mr. Obama also threatens that if his offer is not accepted that the U.S. will make what he terms a major gesture to the Palestinians damaging Israel: formally taking the stand that the final borders should be based on the '67 lines with adjustments. [Hat tip: Arlene Kushner]

Those who thought that we were out of the woods and the issue of the settlement freeze was closed for now were mistaken. It appears that continued pressure by the US may just pay off and give Abbas one more unilateral concession--one that has never been on the table before until Obama made an issue of it. We will wait in vain to see the Obama administration make any similar demand of Abbas.

US pressure on Abbas to get him to the peace negotiations served Obama's personal political needs as much as anything else--but that is as far as it goes.

Abbas has already made it abundantly clear to Obama that any further demands will mean the end of the peace talk farce a month before the mid-term elections.

Abbas can take advantage of that fact; Bibi cannot.

Technorati Tag: Mideast Peace Talks and Obama and Settlement+Freeze and Abbas.