Israel's media on Monday took varying positions on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's major diplomatic policy speech on Sunday, with most agreeing that he had made an important step in unifying the Israeli people.

"He did the right thing. Without stuttering or blinking he placed seven words at the center of the political arena: A demilitarized Palestine alongside a Jewish Israel," said Ari Shavit in an article on Ha'aretz, Israel's prominent left-wing daily.

"The rhetoric of the Bar Ilan speech was right-of-center. His political policy was left-of-center. However, in truth, Netanyahu's message was one of unity," wrote Shavit, dubbing the premier, who had often been accused of dividing the Israeli nation, the Israeli unifier.

In an article on the Ynet news site, Israeli Minister of Information and Diaspora Yuli-Yoel Edelstein said he understood the pressure on Netanyahu.

"We saw the clear understanding of a leader who knows what lies ahead, but who also understands it is a long process which does not lead to results immediately; which is good because we have seen what the shortcuts pursued in recent years have led to," Edelstein said.

"Though I disagree with certain parts of his speech, the prime minister did indeed say some very important things that hit at the root of the conflict," Ze'ev Binyamin Begin, a lawmaker from Netanyahu's hawkish Likud party, said in the same article.

In the center-left wing camp, opposition leader Tzipi Livni, who lost the February 10 general election to Netanyahu, also welcomed Netanyahu's remarks, saying it was a step in the right direction.

Though Netanyahu's words may have helped create a bridge between the country's right and left factions, reactions abroad were mixed.

US President Barack Obama appeared content with the message, calling it an important step forward, yet Palestinian and Syrian officials found fault with Netanyahu's words, which came short of agreeing to their demands concerning Palestinian refugees' right of return to the present-day Israel and Israel's return to pre-1967 borders.

According to London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat daily, the Bar Ilan speech was not directed to the Palestinians, but rather to the United States, Israel's most important ally.

"Netanyahu is certain that the Palestinians will not live up to the American demands and so passed the ball to their field. Now all he has to do is to wait," read an article in the bilingual newspaper.

"Netanyahu proves that in Israel they don't only fail to prepare their Palestinian neighbors, but also don't take them seriously enough. Just as Ariel Sharon withdrew from Gaza unilaterally in order to avoid having to talk to the late Fatah leader Yasser Arafat, so too Netanyahu is only relating to the Americans," Nazir Majali, an Israeli affairs analyst for Arab television stations, said in a Ynet article.

"Relative to the governments that preceded him, as well as to his first term, Netanyahu took several steps backward," said Majali. "He spoke about a Palestinian state, but simultaneously set conditions that made it impossible to be realized. He got rid of the refugee question, and rebuked even the more moderate Palestinian leaders for their refusal to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state."

Nevertheless, Majali recommended that in order to safeguard their own interests, the Palestinian leadership should not cast aside Netanyahu's speech. "The Palestinian leaders need to study the speech in depth and respond to it from a clear standpoint that carries a message of peace," Majali said.

"This is the time for leaders who know how to be wise, and not just correct or artful in their rhetoric," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 16, 2009)