MAURICE OSTROFF
MAURICE OSTROFF
Writes from Israel:
As we await Secretary Kerry’s framework proposals it is highly relevant to recall President Obama’s urging of Israel to follow in the footsteps of the late Yitzchak Rabin and that it would be a breach of faith to disregard Rabin’s legacy.
On November 8, 2009 President Obama sent an inspiring video message to the Rabin memorial rally in Tel Aviv. In concluding he said:
“Let us all fulfil his [Rabin’s] legacy for here in this square that bears his name there can be no higher tribute nor more noble a calling.”
However, if we are to fulfil Rabin’s legacy, as urged by Obama and in a subsequent eulogy, by former president Clinton, we need to know what this legacy is and it is interesting to note that Rabin anticipated Kerry’s concept of a “framework”. This is how Rabin described his “framework” on October 5, 1995 in his last speech to the Knesset, just a few weeks before the terrible assassination:
“We view the permanent solution in the framework of the State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.
First and foremost, united Jerusalem, which will include both Ma’ale Adumim and Givat Ze’ev — as the capital of Israel, under Israeli sovereignty.. The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term…”
Read the complete J-POST article
Gary Selikow
Feb 5, 2014 at 12:07 pm
‘Kerry and Obama and the EU keep threatening Israel with sanctions and isolation should the talks fail. The ‘Palestinians’ know this and as their end game is not a two state solution but the end of Israel, this gives them incentives to make sure the talks fail. The Palestinian Entity keeps on demanding concessions which endanger Israel before they will talk while Israel bends over backwards to beg them to come to an agreement. all because the world puts no responsibility on the Palestinians and all the threats of punishment and doom should no peace agreement be reached are pointed at Israel, even if the Palestinians are the ones sabotaging any agreement deliberately’