Tehran, February 01: The death certificate of negotiations based on the two-state solution is a badge of shame for Israeli society.
Netanyahu has turned the Iranian nuclear threat into an impressive ploy to distract attention from settlement policy and perpetuate the occupation.”
An Israeli newspaper says Israel uses Iran threat as a tool to divert international attention from Tel Aviv’s settlement policy and perpetuate the occupation of the Palestinian territories.
The daily Haaretz wrote in its editorial that Israel and the Palestinians have missed the deadline of January 26, 2012 imposed by the Middle East Quartet (the United Nations, Russia, the United States, and the European Union) to clarify their position on security and the borders.
The report added that Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is intentionally trying to bring the negotiations with the Palestinians to a complete halt by taking positions which would subvert any hope for achieving a peaceful solution to the problem.
“The general positions that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu submitted last week through his envoy Isaac Molho during talks in Jordan are a blatant attempt to saddle the Palestinians with responsibility for the negotiations’ failure,” it added.
Haaretz said Netanyahu knows his refusal to present a map based on the June 1967 borders and a realistic land-swap proposal is a recipe for a continued freeze in the negotiations.
As a result, the article went on, “Netanyahu…has turned the Iranian nuclear threat into an impressive ploy to distract attention from settlement policy and the perpetuation of the occupation.”
The report added that US President Barack Obama’s preoccupation with the presidential elections and Obama’s fear of the Jewish right has also helped Netanyahu in this regard.
“The death certificate of negotiations based on the two-state solution is a badge of shame for Israeli society. It’s hard to understand how a society that has so impressively brought social injustice to the top of the agenda has fallen victim to our nationalist-religious leaders’ criminal ploy and the irresponsible opposition’s helplessness,” Haaretz concluded.
The United States, Israel and their European allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program and have used this pretext to impose four rounds of international and a series of unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Iran has refuted the allegations, arguing that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Tehran has a right to use nuclear technology for peaceful use.
——Agencies