Meretz chair, MK Chaim Oron, issued the following reaction last week to the imminent renewal of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations:
“I welcome the initiative, the assertiveness and the responsibility that the American administration is demonstrating with regard to the fate of the region. [But], without a total freeze on continued building in the settlements, and without sincere and profound readiness to withdraw to the international borders, rather than again and again offering the Palestinians a caricature of a state – something [akin to] Andorra … – it’ll be a waste of all our precious time. Netanyahu should therefore rework his approach before renewing the talks.”
“מברך על היזמות, האסרטיביות והאחריות שמפגין הממשל האמריקאי באשר לגורל האזור”. עם זאת הדגיש אורון: “שללא המשך הקפאה מוחלטת של המשך הבניה בהתנחלויות ונכונות כנה ועמוקה לסגת לגבולות הבינלאומיים ולא להוסיף ולהציע לפלסטינים קריקטורה של מדינה – משהו בין אנדורה לבנדורה – חבל על הזמן היקר של כולנו. כדאי אפוא שנתניהו יחליף דיסקט טרם חידוש השיחות”.
I get it: it’s all Israel’s fault. And here is another thing everyone (almost) gets: Meretz is irrelevant, becoming even less relevant than that, in any serious discussion of peace. The Israeli electorate certainly thinks so.
Werner,
Were you and I reading the same statement? Where does it say, or even suggest, ‘all Israel’s fault’? Or are you simply saying that the Meretz party shouldn’t be criticizing the Israeli government? Is that how you spell patriotism?
As for Meretz’s current political fortunes: You’re right that Meretz is down in the polls – no news there. But since when has that become the measure of the value and validity of an idea? Saying “irrelevant” seems more like a way of dismissing the content of Meretz’s critique.