Become a Member

By

Robin Shepherd

Analysis

It makes little difference what the border plan is

August 4, 2011 12:18
Going head to head: Benjamin Netanyahu meets Mahmoud Abbas
1 min read

It was always on the cards that Benjamin Netanyahu would make some sort of diplomatic push in August to forestall Palestinian attempts to get recognition for statehood at the United Nations the following month.

While much is being made of whether Bibi's apparent acceptance of the 1967 lines as the basis for proposed talks represents a climb-down, the real issue, as ever, is whether the Palestinians are serious about accepting a Jewish state in the Middle East at all.

What, after all, does it really mean to call the borders that existed before the Six-Day War a "baseline", "basis", or "framework" for peace talks? Sure, it's the end of the Greater Israel project. But that was only ever a dream of a tiny minority and almost no-one in Israel has believed it to be practicable for decades.

So all it comes down to is publicly saying what everyone who has ever argued for a two-state solution has always known: that bit over there is going to be the Palestinian state and this bit over here is going to be Israel.