Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today delivered a singularly unconstructive and even irresponsible speech, that offered little movement in the direction that President Obama and his administration have laid out. Netanyahu did acknowledge that there might one day be a Palestinian state, although with a plethora of caveats and preconditions that undermine any notion that he is serious about this prospect. In a piece of unintentional dark humor, Ha?aretz?s live ticker on its website misquoted him as saying that a ?Future Palestinian state must be ?dematerialized? if peace is to arrive? ? positively Freudian even if it was done by a spell-checking machine. The acceptance of a Palestinian state in theory while moving away from what is needed to create and sustain one seems a throwback to the era in which Netanyahu was first in the Prime Minister?s office in the 1990s. Apparently, he has not yet gotten the message that times have changed. His rhetoric about a Palestinian state, in this context, was therefore decidedly not reassuring.

The most significant aspect of the speech from the outset, as I noted yesterday, was not his theoretical acceptance of a Palestinian state, but his position on the settlements and the American insistence on a settlement freeze. Netanyahu largely ducked the issue, affirming that natural growth would continue, and that the settlers are not a threat to peace but are ?our brothers and sisters.? He did also not mention the Roadmap, which is the main Israeli commitment to freezing settlements. It would not be an overstatement to suggest that, on this and several other issues, Netanyahu has delivered an anti-Roadmap address. There is no doubt that the White House will be duly dismayed. A deal allowing for a version of ?natural growth? that is not a cover for expansion but rather the cover for an actual settlement freeze is still possible and desirable, but was not advanced by this speech.

By ducking so many crucial issues, especially the question of settlements, and by avoiding any consideration of the Roadmap, Netanyahu has opened a unique and extraordinary opportunity for the Palestinians and the other Arabs. If they move quickly to bolster rather than oppose Obama (as Netanyahu is implicitly doing), they will be able to draw a clear distinction between those who are ready, willing and able to assist the American President move towards peace and those who are not. If they take a sullen or otherwise noncooperative attitude at this stage, there is every danger that the President and his Administration will conclude that they are dealing with two recalcitrant and irresponsible parties that are impervious to reason, and walk away to focus on other matters. If, however, the Arab states in particular take urgent and practical measures to support Obama?s position, especially by committing to operationalize the Arab Peace Initiative short of diplomatic recognition in response to Israeli measures like a real settlement freeze, they will have positioned themselves as serious and committed partners to the American President and isolated Prime Minister Netanyahu, making either his position or his policies untenable. Netanyahu just opened the door. The Palestinians and other Arabs must walk though it without hesitation or delay.