Like then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who 13 years ago offered then-Palestinian President Yasser Arafat almost everything, including the Temple Mount, and on being refused declared proudly that he had now proved that there was really nobody to talk to on the Palestinian side. Presumably, it will be another victory for Israeli PR.
And if, believe it or not, Abbas is prepared to accept the Israeli offer, Israel will have saved itself from becoming a "binational" state, will have removed the stigma of being an "occupier," or a "colonial power," as Justice Minister Tzipi Livni says, and will be applauded by the whole "international community." So it's "win-win." Either way we come out smelling like a rose.
But not so fast. If Abbas remains obstinate, despite the Israeli enticement and American pressure, will this really be a net gain for Israel? Will the offer of Judea and Samaria rejected by Abbas then just vanish, like a concession written on ice that melts with the first heat wave, disappearing forever? Not on your life. What was offered first by Barak, then by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and now by Netanyahu, will be written in stone and require Herculean efforts in the future to erase. A net loss.
If he agrees, what then? A solution to the Palestinian problem, an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and no further demands by the Palestinians on Israel - neither for the right of return nor for additional territory - in other words, peace? Not by a long shot.
Just listen to Netanyahu speaking at Mount Herzl on the 109th anniversary of the death of Theodor Herzl, and listen closely: "[W]e do not want a binational country. However, let no one delude themselves into thinking that if we reach an agreement with the Palestinians it would erase the wild slander against the Jewish state."
What does that mean? An agreement with Abbas won't be the end of the conflict and it won't be peace. And there will be additional demands made on Israel and there will be rockets falling on Israel - but the heart of the Land of Israel, Judea and Samaria, will have been abandoned by Israel.
Arens appointed then 32-year old Binyamin Netanyahu to be his deputy when Arens was appointed Ambassador to the United States in January 1982. Netanyahu stayed in that position through 1984 (including spending nearly every night of the First Lebanon War in the summer of 1982 being interviewed by Ted Koppel on Nightline, which was how he became a household name in the US), when he became Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations for four years.
It's time for Netanyahu to listen to his mentor.
