When the prime minister of Israel announces that there will be "no withdrawals" and "no concessions," and when the Likud announces that the 2009 speech in which Benjamin Netanyahu expressed support for the two-state solution is "no longer relevant," they are discarding out of hand a clear decision by the Israeli government.

In May of 2003, the government of then-Likud Chairman Ariel Sharon (in which Netanyahu served as one of the top ministers) decided to adopt the so-called Road Map — a document issued by the office of US President George W. Bush. The document, which Bush subsequently turned into a UN Security Council resolution, states emphatically, “A settlement, negotiated between the parties, will result in the emergence of an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel and its other neighbors.”

When Netanyahu and other Likud leaders pledge to expand construction in the settlements of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, they are in contempt of a Cabinet decision that adopted the principles of the 2005 “Unauthorized Outposts Report” commissioned by Sharon from the former senior state prosecutor, attorney Talya Sason.

The report states, “As approved by the government’s decision of May 2003, the first stage of the Road Map determines that Israel must dismantle the ‘unauthorized outposts’ erected since March 2001. The Israeli government will adhere to this commitment.” The outposts in question were less than two dozen settlements out of the more than 105 outposts dispersed throughout the occupied territories. Most of them were erected on private Palestinian lands. There was no mention of the fact that the decision to adopt the Road Map had also included a commitment to freeze construction in the settlements, with no reservations.