Panetta, Friedman and “The Damn Table”

by Shoshana Bryen:

Criticism of Leon Panetta’s demand that Israel “return to the damn table,” and Tom Friedman’s lament that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s ovation before Congress “was bought and paid for by the Israel lobby” has been broad and deep. Writers from right to center (forget the left, who applauded both) denounced them, parsed them and tried to put them “in context.” It is the context that is worrisome rather than their less-than-lovely language. The context is that if Israel and the Palestinians would both negotiate seriously, they would get to the “Two State Solution” beloved of the US and the Quartet.

Grant Panetta and Friedman the “damn table” and see what happens:

IF Israel sat at the table; IF Netanyahu agreed to a permanent settlement freeze; IF the Palestinians returned to the table; IF the Palestinians came under the “moderate” mandate of Fatah rather than “extremist” mandate of Hamas; IF they started with the 1949 Armistice Lines (the so-called 67 borders); IF they talked themselves blue in the face, they STILL would not get where Panetta, Friedman, et. al. want them to go.

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