By Chibli Mallat, Muhammad Aburdaini, Sharhabeel Al Zaeem
For the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people
By Benjamin Netanyahu
For a Federal Israel-Palestine: A human rights response
By Chibli Mallat, Muhammad Aburdaini, Sharhabeel Al Zaeem
Editor’s note: The following is a detailed response to the Israeli Prime Minister’s important speech at the Israeli National Defense College Graduation Ceremony on August 3, when he explained his “foundations” for a “lasting peace.” On today’s law page, two Palestinians and a Lebanese – Muhammad Aburdaini, Sharhabeel Al Zaeem and Chibli Mallat – discuss his proposals, while putting forward alternative foundations in a fresh initiative based on human rights and a federal future for Palestine/Israel. Mr. Netanyahu’s words are reproduced in full, minus a few deletions relating to the occasion, with our response following each part of his speech.
Benjamin Netanyahu [BN]: … If one were standing here in the middle of the 19th century, one would not be raising such issues, because one would not believe that there would be anything here. There were thirty, or at most, forty thousand Jews in the entire Land of Israel. No one would have dared to believe that what has happened here could actually happen here.
A hundred years later, the number of Jews grew to six hundred thousand, and today we are close to six million. For the first time since the period of the Second Temple, the majority of Jews will live in their homeland. These things required vision, daring and great faith, and also our ability to concentrate our capabilities in the economy, in education, in culture, in science, in technology, in agriculture, and above all in security, in security and in faith.
