Netanyahu also feels a historic responsibility to get a deal if he can and if the price is not too high. Recently, he has begun speaking of peace in a new way, defining it as a vital need to keep Israel’s identity as a Jewish homeland and as a democracy. He knows that Jews will eventually be outnumbered on the land if there is no withdrawal from the West Bank and that the world will not stand by and allow Israel to deprive millions of Palestinians of basic democratic rights.
Netanyahu has seen his own Likud Party move to his right and knows that his future as party leader is questionable. Yet he sees the bleak future Israel is facing in the absence of a two-state solution and he retains the option to put himself at the head of a wide, pro-peace coalition that could push through a deal.
