That there is rich irony in this pair of opposed objectives is evident in Netanyahu’s primary interest in increased military aid from the U.S. and insistence that an independent Palestinian state would have to be utterly demilitarized.

You have to really wonder whether the Palestinian Authority would ever agree to full demilitarization, with Israel as a neighbor. The following are well known about Israel: It has on the order of 200 usable nuclear weapons (illegally); it has both chemical and biological weapons (illegally); it is continuing with its expansionist settlement practices in the occupied territories (in contradiction of international law); and it has used U.S.-supplied cluster munitions in offensive military operations in areas densely populated by civilians (against international laws of warfare).

Anyone who knows Netanyahu realizes that his lamb-like bleatings about wanting peace amount to nothing more than temporary diplomatic “offerings” to induce more military aid from the U.S. Hopefully our president has asked why Israel needs additional military aid when it is now overwhelmingly the most powerful military presence in the Middle East? Actually, that is a question that nearly every informed political analyst has asked. It is also a question that up to 47 percent of Jewish residents of the U.S. have asked.

Obviously, the question has real substance – a quality that is conspicuously lacking in Netanyahu.

Tom Wright

Aztec