It nearly made one feel sorry for Benjamin Netanyahu, watching him progress through his speech, through an ocean of right-wing rhetoric full of national symbols, until he uttered two words: "Palestinian state" (which were followed by a third: "demilitarized"). These two words were uttered like a rotten tooth pulled from its socket without anesthesia. In spite all this, he lived.

Five prime ministers said it before him, two of them from Likud, so yesterday's drama at Bar-Ilan University was quite limited. Nonetheless, one cannot ignore Netanyahu's change, at this stage only rhetorical: from complete rejection of the idea, to conditional acceptance reserved and layered.