Weekly Commentary: Bar Ilan Address – Autonomous Or Sovereign State?

Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 10 January 2013

In the 14 June 2009 Address by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the
Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies, Bar-Ilan University, Mr.
Netanyahu described the security requirement for a Palestinian state as
follows:

"The second principle is: demilitarization. The territory under Palestinian
control must be demilitarized with ironclad security provisions for Israel."

At the time, MKs and even ministers in his party suggested that it is
virtually impossible to have "ironclad security provisions" if a Palestinian
state is truly a sovereign state.

Why not?

Because even if a sovereign Palestinian state was actually created as a
result of an agreement that included security provisions that on paper
sounded workable, that Palestinian state would continue to be a sovereign
state even if it opted to renege on the agreement.

So much for "ironclad".

There were, of course, those who opted to ignore this fundamental problem
and still saw the Bar Ilan Address as an endorsement of a truly sovereign
state.

This week Mr. Netanyahu tighten the requirement.

In an interview on 6 January 2013 on Israel Radio, PM Netanyahu cited his
Bar Ilan Address and described the demilitarization requirement as follows:

"Demilitarized territory, with strong security provisions that we are
responsible for."

This is a very interesting development.

No more speculation about the possibility of relying on third parties (FM
Avigdor Liberman has talked about the use of NATO or other forces in the
past).

Instead, Israel is to be responsible for the "strong security provisions".

And if Israel is to be responsible for the "strong security provisions" then
we are most definitely talking about a form of autonomous – rather than
sovereign - Palestinian state.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il