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Inside Israel

'Bibi' positions himself to win


By Stan Goodenough
January 27, 2009

Two weeks before Israelis got to the polls to elect a new government and political leader, Likud Party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu is dancing around hot topics that, were he to take a solid stand on them, would scupper his chances of becoming prime minister.

The former premier Tuesday refused to sign a pledge opposing the creation of a Palestinian state in the historical homeland of the Jews.

Speaking to religious-Zionist supporters Monday Bibi, as he is popularly known, he ruled out future unilateral withdrawals and warned about the creation of a Palestinian state, even though he would not rule it out.

"Any Palestinian state that would be formed under the current conditions would become an Iranian state as we saw happen in Gaza," Netanyahu said, according to The Jerusalem Post.

"We all must work to advance peace while considering reality."

Netanyahu also addressed the question of building new Jewish communities in Samaria and Judea.

He said he maintained the position he had held as prime minister between 1996 and 1999, when he would not allow new "settlements" to be built but allowed natural growth in the already existing ones.

In a meeting with the so-called Quartet's Middle East envoy Tony Blair Sunday, Netanyahu said he has "no intention of building new settlements" on the land the Bible calls the Mountains of Israel.

"But like all the governments there have been until now, I will have to meet the needs of natural growth in the population. I will not be able to choke the settlements."

It is believed that Netanyahu has gauged the extent to which his party's not very substantial lead over the currently ruling Kadima Party would be damaged were he to adopt a rigid stance on the question of "Palestine."

Latest polls put the Likud just four points ahead.

The Likud leader appears to be walking a tightrope in order to ensure his return to the Prime Minister's Office from where he will be in a position to retard international efforts to establish this Arab entity in Gaza, Samaria and Judea.

According to its party platform , the Likud "flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river.

"The Palestinians can run their lives freely in the framework of self-rule, but not as an independent and sovereign state," the platform continues.

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