Draft resolution to be discussed by Arab League doesn’t include call to condemn, or act against Israel-UAE deal.
By Elad Benari, INN
The Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership has watered down its criticism of the normalization deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates before an Arab League meeting in Cairo on Wednesday at which the accord will be debated, Reuters reports.
A draft resolution presented by the PA envoy, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, does not include a call to condemn, or act against, the Emirates over the US-brokered deal.
PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas also issued instructions on Tuesday banning any offensive statements or actions towards Arab leaders, including UAE rulers, according to Reuters.
The draft Palestinian resolution to be debated by Arab foreign ministers said the Israel-US-Emirates announcement “doesn’t diminish Arab consensus over the Palestinian cause, the Palestinian cause is the cause of the entire Arab nation”.
“The trilateral announcement doesn’t change the principal Arab vision based on the fact that the two-state solution on the 1967 borders is the only way to achieve peace in the Middle East,” the draft says.
Abbas initially denounced the Israel-UAE deal and described it as “a stab in the Palestinians’ back”. He has also said that no peace would be achieved in the region by bypassing the Palestinian Arabs in favor of normalization of relationships between the Arab states and Israel.
Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat warned that the Israel-UAE agreement would kill the two-state solution, strengthen “extremists” and undermine the “possibility of peace”.
Erekat has to explain why the UAE – Israel pact destroys the two state possibility when the Arabs chanting “from the river to the sea” certainly do so. Shelving annexation of the Jordan Valley has give an extension to possible twin state solutions but on precedent the longer the PA waits to make its offer the less it will receive.
Second we hear that this peace has created in Israel a wave of the sort of optimism we last saw when Egypt and then Jordan signed peace treaties. It is time for all with pen and microphones to chivvy, encourage, josh the PA to offer a similar vision of peace and prosperity and prove it by dropping the incitement and hostility. People get the Jews – and trade unions they deserve – so if you want a smiling Israel? SMILE !