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Peace Process

Netanyahu: It's our land, but we'll share


By Stan Goodenough
June 16, 2009

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday offered to discuss sharing the ancient homeland of the Jewish people with the Palestinian Arabs.

In speech described as "strongly Zionist," the premier laid out his vision for peace, which he chose to build on a position "firmly connected to the truth."

This truth, he said, " is that the root of the conflict has been - and remains - the refusal to recognize the right of the Jewish People to its own state in its historical homeland."

In his speech Netanyahu repeatedly stressed the Jewish ownership of this land.

"The connection of the Jewish People to the Land has been in existence for more than 3,500 years. Judea and Samaria, the places where our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob walked, our forefathers David, Solomon, Isaiah and Jeremiah - this is not a foreign land, this is the Land of our Forefathers," he said.

"The right to establish our sovereign state here, in the Land of Israel, arises from one simple fact: Eretz Israel is the birthplace of the Jewish People."

Quoting from a speech David Ben Gurion gave when Israel declared its independence, Netanyahu said "the State of Israel was established here in Eretz Israel, where the People of Israel created the Book of Books, and gave it to the world."

Another reality was that "in the area of our homeland, in the heart of our Jewish homeland, [there] now lives a large population of Palestinians,"

Israel has no desire to rule over these people or to run their lives, Netanyahu said. As a result Israel was willing to discuss sharing this land - this historical homeland of his Jewish people - with the Palestinian Arabs.

The only proviso, was that they abide by a handful of Israeli demands in order to ensure that they will be friendly neighbors who will neither incite against, threaten or attack the Jewish state.

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