This is obviously the end of the Kerry peace process. The sooner that Abbas does his worst at the UN or the ICC the better. I hate when Israel acts in fear of him doing so. Ted Belman
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH, JPOST
Speaking at an emergency meeting of the Fatah Central Committee in Ramallah, Abbas briefed officials on his meetings in the US; PA spokesman reiterates Palestinian refusal of recognizing as Israel as a Jewish state.
The Palestinians won’t accept anything less than a full sovereign state with east Jerusalem as its capital, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday.
Abbas also stressed that the Palestinians won’t make any concessions on their rights “regardless of the pressure and threats.”
Abbas was speaking during an emergency meeting of the Fatah Central Committee in Ramallah.
A Fatah official quoted Abbas as complaining that the US Administration was exerting heavy pressure on him to make concessions to Israel in order to boost the peace talks.
“We reject any attempt to blackmail the Palestinians,” the official said. “We’re not going to surrender our rights under any kind of pressure and threats.”
Abbas briefed the Fatah officials on the outcome of his last visit to Washington, where he held talks with US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry on the future of the peace talks with Israel.
Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudaineh, said after the meeting that the members of the Fatah Central Committee expressed their support for the PA president’s positions and his commitment to the Palestinian rights.
Abu Rudaineh said that the Palestinians who took to the streets last week also voiced their backing for Abbas’s policies.
The PA leadership organized a hero’s welcome for Abbas upon his return to Ramallah last Thursday.
The spokesman said that the Palestinian position remains clear and unambiguous. The Palestinians, he said, are committed to a just peace that would see Israel withdraw to the pre-1967 lines and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.
Abu Rudaineh reiterated the Palestinians’ opposition to any Israeli military or civilian presence on the lands of a future Palestinian state.
On the issue of the refugees, Abu Rudaineh said that it should be resolved on the basis of United Nations resolution 194.
He also reiterated the Palestinians’ refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, noting that the PLO had already recognized Israel’s right to exist two decades ago.
“The Palestinian leadership has not received any written document from the Americans,” Abu Rudaineh said, referring to talk about a US framework agreement between the Palestinians and Israel.
The Fatah committee affirmed the Palestinians’ commitment to pursuing the negotiations with Israel until the end of the nine-month deadline set by the US Administration, which expires at the end of April.
The only way to prevent a 2nd Hamastan in J & S is to regularize the status of J & S as an integral part of IL. This is a kind of Hobson’s choice.
watsa46 Said:
I like your statement. Even if Israel wants to make an agreement (if the so called peace process comes to “fruition”), in the absence of a leader that could represent all Palestinian Arabs what purpose does any potential agreement serve? If election is held in the West Bank, Hamas will win.
You cannot make an agreement with a terrorists that desire to kill you and wipe your country off the map of the world.
When will this futile exercise end?
Let us all be honest. The PA basically has endorsed the triple NO from the Arab League.
IL should do like the Palestinians: Talk, GIVE NOTHING and create facts in J & S. The Arabs have millions of dunams to relocate the pseudo-people.
I keep preaching that for years now! Let them go to UN and whatever the outcome would be they won’t get anything in reality, let them go to ICC and in the end it will turn out WHO are the real war criminals. Deprive them of their big bluff!
Abbas Suggests Obama Promised ’67 Lines, E. Jerusalem Capital
U.S. President Barack Obama met in the Oval Office with Mahmoud Abbas, the acting leader of the Palestinian Authority late morning on Monday, March 17.
Obama spoke first, welcoming Abbas to his office. As noted elsewhere in The Jewish Press, Obama made several absurd comments, such as commending Abbas as someone “who has consistently renounced violence, has consistently sought a diplomatic and peaceful solution that allows for two states, side by side, in peace and security; a state that allows for the dignity and sovereignty of the Palestinian people and a state that allows for Israelis to feel secure and at peace with their neighbors.”
But Abbas also played with Obama’s words.
Obama uttered his standard “everybody understands the outlines of what a peace deal would look like, involving a territorial compromise on both sides based on ’67 lines with mutually agreed upon swaps,” and never said a word about Jerusalem.
In Abbas’s responsive remarks, he transformed what Obama said into something quite different. Abbas made it sound as though Obama said that there would be a Palestinian State with the “’67 lines” (actually, the 1949 Armistice Lines) as its western border, and with eastern Jerusalem as its capital.
Abbas also managed to shoehorn in a reference to the refugee issue, as if Obama had acknowledged a connection between eastern Jerusalem and the refugees. And Abbas also created a link to the “promise” of the release of still more convicted murderers as part of the “peace process.”
The other significant issue mentioned by Abbas was his claim that “in 1993, we recognized the state of Israel.”
In 1993, Yassir Arafat signed the Oslo Accords, as did Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. In September of that year, Arafat issued a statement that the PLO “recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security.” Not a Jewish State, just the State of Israel. Few people believe that Arafat ever believed or intended to suggest that he or his followers had any intention of allowing the Jewish State of Israel to exist in peace and security.
Still, not bad for a speech containing fewer than 400 words.
“Abbas’ idea of negotiation is a rigid, unmoving, unbending, unmodifying, unchanging, unswerving “NO COMPROMISE” on every topic.”
Bibi could learn from him. And should.@ Mickey Oberman:
Abbas’ idea of negotiation is a rigid, unmoving, unbending, unmodifying, unchanging, unswerving “NO COMPROMISE” on every topic.
Israel should waste no more time with this irrational nonentity who has no longer any legal authority to represent anyone.
The peace process is dead. That’s been obvious for some time now but Abu Bluff made it clear he doesn’t want peace.
Let him do his worst. At the end of the day the Palestinian Arabs won’t have their state. And Israel should stop succumbing to their blackmail to keep them at the table.
Its time to end the charade.