White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said at the annual J Street conference on March 23 that Israel must withdraw to the 1967 borders, with agreed upon mutual land swaps. He demanded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu adopt concrete steps proving his commitment to the two-state solution. One can assume that McDonough, like any astute observer, understands that the 1967 borders are as far from Netanyahu as is the White House from the premier's official residence on Jerusalem’s Balfour Street. Heavy pressure was required for the prime minister to even overcome pressures brought to bear by the settlers and hook up the new Palestinian town of Rawabi to the water supply. Without external pressure the week of March 27, Netanyahu would likely not have even released the Palestinian tax revenues withheld by Israel.
The elections of the 20th Knesset granted the next government a mandate to manage the conflict, not to promote its resolution. Experience proves that a reasonable management of the conflict requires cooperation between the Israeli government and the Palestinian unity government formed by Hamas and Fatah, dubbed the “national consensus government.”
