Netanyahu's Offer a Bad Idea , by ThePedro, Sun Jun 14, 2009

Reading the BBC news online this morning, I came across an offer for peace laid out by Benjamin Netanyahu. Here are some of the conditions he laid out:
Source: Daily Kos

*The Palestinian State must be completely demilitarized, have no control of its airspace, and no way of getting weapons
*Palestinian Refugees have no right to migrate back to their ancestral lands in the current state of Israel
*Jerusalem must be the "United Capital of Israel"

First, consider the idea of a completely demilitarized state. Well the world tried to do a similar thing to Germany after WWI. If you'll recall, that didn't work out so well. The Nazi party was able to play off of the anger this created among the people and use it to radicalize them. I think that this would do similar things to Palestine down the road.

As for preventing refugees to return to Israel, this is once again a terrible demand. The Gaza Strip is already very over-populated, which is one of the main reasons for the current humanitarian crisis there. Now thinking about dealing with this requires a little reading between the lines, if there is to be no way of Palestine getting weapons, then this implies that all of their imports will have to be monitored, which could limit the flow of essentials like food and medical supplies.

And Jerusalem as the "Unified Capital of Israel"? What right do the Israelis have to it any more than the Palestinians? Just because they are the ones with the guns doesn't make it ok in my mind.