Netanyahu pleads for ‘a Palestinian Ben-Gurion’
At ceremony marking 40 years since first prime minister’s death, PM hopes a courageous leader will emerge to educate his people for peace
November 10, 2013, 4:32 pm
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Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks out across the Negev during a special
cabinet meeting at the Sde Boker academy to mark 40 years since the
passing of Israel's first prime minister David Ben Gurion, November 10,
2013. (Photo credit: Kobi Gideon/GPO/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu on Sunday publicly wished for the emergence of a “Palestinian
Ben-Gurion” to lead his people to true and lasting peace with Israel.In
an address marking the 40th anniversary of the death of David
Ben-Gurion, delivered at the first prime minister’s home kibbutz, Sde
Boker, in the Negev, Netanyahu said Israel was committed to an
end-of-conflict agreement with the Palestinians — “two states for two
nations” — and was ready to make compromises in that cause. He said he
longed for the emergence of a Palestinian leader who would give “a
Birzeit speech” — an address, in Arabic, at the East Jerusalem
university, to parallel his own landmark two-state speech delivered at
Bar Ilan University in 2009.The prime minister said it had “not been easy”
for him to accept the two-state imperative, and that he knew it was not
easy for the Palestinians either. But courageous leadership was
required on the Palestinians’ side “to educate their people for peace,
even if it takes a generation.”Addressing the issue of Iran’s nuclear drive,
Netanyahu noted the improbable alliance of Israel and unspecified other
countries in the region, determined to ensure that Tehran not attain
nuclear weapons. This alliance of interests, he said, offered tangible
new opportunities for peaceful relations between Israel and others in
the Arab world, he said.
Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sits with cabinet members for a group photo
following a special cabinet meeting at the Sde Boker academy to mark 40
years since the passing of Israel’s first prime minister David
Ben-Gurion, November 10, 2013. (Photo credit: Kobi Gideon/GPO/Flash90)
Turning to the need to make the Negev bloom in
accordance with Ben-Gurion’s vision, Netanyahu promised that there
would soon be a rapid and dramatic increase in the percentage of
Israelis living in the Negev — which has long hovered at around 8
percent. A huge “critical mass” would start flowing south, he vowed.
Khamenei rails against France’s ‘inept move’ after talks scuttled
Taking to social media, Iran’s supreme leader accuses Paris of open hostility; Iranian press lays blame on France for failure to finalize nuke deal
November 10, 2013, 11:41 am
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“A wise man, particularly a wise politician,
should never have the motivation to turn a neutral entity into an
enemy,” Khamenei tweeted.The same statements tweeted by the supreme leader were previously delivered in a March speech
in which Khamenei threatened to “raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground”
should Israel strike Iran’s nuclear program. Khamenei remarked at the
time that “the Zionist regime is too small to be considered among the
first row of the Iranian nation’s enemies.”The Iranian press also lashed out, squarely
placing blame on France for the failure of the latest round of talks to
yield a deal. ”France’s spanner scuppers nuclear deal,” reads the front
page headline of The Tehran Times’s Sunday paper.“French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius caused
the talks to hit a snag,” the paper reported, making little mention of
US Secretary of State John Kerry’s statements throughout the
negotiations that disparities remained between the two sides. Kerry,
speaking to reporters after the talks broke up, acknowledged there were
“certain issues that we needed to work through.”“We’re grateful to the French for the work we did together,” Kerry said.
Tehran’s criticism came a day after Iranian state TV criticized
France for demanding stricter terms to the nuclear agreement that was
being hammered out in Geneva between world powers and Iran, calling the
European country “Israel’s representatives at the talks.”The rapporteur of the Iranian parliament’s
National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Seyed Hossein Naqavi
Hosseini, told Fars News Agency Saturday that “the behavior of France’s
representative in the nuclear negotiations shows that France seeks to
blackmail the negotiations, and this illogical behavior should be
confronted by the other members of the Group 5+1 [P5+1].”“While the French people want an improvement
in the relations between Paris and Tehran, unfortunately the French
government has preferred the Zionist regime’s views to its people’s
demand,” he added.“We hope that the French foreign minister casts a logical look at the negotiations,” Hosseini said.Earlier Saturday, French Foreign Minister
Laurent Fabius spoke of “several points that… we’re not satisfied with
compared to the initial text,” telling France-Inter Radio his nation
does not want to be part of a “con game.”He did not specify, but his comments suggested
France thought a final draft of any first-step deal was too favorable
to Iran, echoing concerns raised by Israel and several prominent US
legislators. The French position was confirmed by another Western
diplomat.Fabius said Tehran was resisting demands that
it suspend work on a plutonium-producing reactor and downgrade its
stockpile of higher-enriched uranium to a level that cannot quickly be
turned into the core of an atomic bomb.Fabius mentioned differences over Iran’s Arak
reactor southeast of Tehran, which could produce enough plutonium for
several nuclear weapons a year once it goes online. He also said there
was disagreement over efforts to limit Iran’s uranium enrichment to
levels that would require substantial further enriching before they
could be used as the fissile core of a nuclear weapon.AP contributed to this report.
