'Israeli security can’t be maintained within ’67 lines'

Settler leader Dayan says Netanyahu should speak about the existential threat of a Palestinian state when meeting with Obama.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Dani Dayan 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Dani Dayan 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
United States President Barack Obama cannot be committed to Israel’s security if he calls for a return to the pre-1967 lines, said Dani Dayan who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip.
“You cannot guarantee Israel’s security and talk about the ’67 borders because one contradicts the other,” Dayan said.
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Before he became prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu wrote and spoke about the existential threat of a Palestinian state, and he should use those words when he meets with Obama on Friday, Dayan added.
In addition, he warned, it would be a mistake for Netanyahu to follow Obama’s blueprint to peace, in which he suggests that Israel first make concessions on borders and then deal with the other two issues of conflict with the Palestinians: the question of Jerusalem, and Palestinian refugees.
If Israel strips itself of its assets, it weakens Israel’s stance in negotiations and leaves it nothing to bargain with when it comes to these two other issues, he said.
Samaria Citizens Committee head Benny Katzover similarly warned Netanyahu against falling into the borders first trap.
Once an agreement on borders is concluded, the Palestinians will walk away from the talks over the issue of Jerusalem and refugees, he said.
Activist Itamar Ben-Gvir said that it was the the activists and hill-top youth building outposts who would win out in the end. Obama, he said, will leave office in a number of years – but Jerusalem and Hebron are eternal cities.
Earlier in the day he sent out a notice that activists planned to head out to an unbuilt section of the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement, known as “E1,” to construct an outpost there.
On Sunday, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon plans to head to the same site to speak of its importance to the State of Israel. Palestinians have opposed construction of the site, which they claim would destroy the territorial contiguity of their future state.
For close to two decades, the government has refused to issue final approvals for the E1 site – in spite of pledges made to the city’s Mayor Benny Kashriel that he would be able to build there.