Netanyahu’s choice is to capitualate to maximalist demands and keep UN approval or to reject them and keep all the land but not UN approval. I think it is a no-brainer. The only issue will be that by refusing to accept the demands of Abbas, it is open to declare that our “occupation” is a threat to world peace. This would open up the possibility of sanctions or military force or a blockade of our international waters. Even so we must keep the land and give the finger to the UN. Ted Belman
Abbas gave the PM a month to respond to the Palestinian positions, which will be laid out in a letter to be delivered to Netanyahu next Wednesday during a Jerusalem meeting with Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad.
The Palestinian Authority will renew its efforts to win UN recognition for a Palestinian state if it does not receive a positive response from Israel to its positions on a prospective peace deal, PA President Mahmoud Abbas told an unofficial Israeli delegation on Sunday.
Abbas gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a month to respond to the Palestinian positions, which will be laid out in a letter to be delivered to Netanyahu next Wednesday during a meeting in Jerusalem with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
“It won’t be just a letter,” Abbas said, according to a source who was present at the meeting. “I also intend to turn to the public in Israel and around the world, and present the Palestinian positions regarding a peace agreement with Israel.”
Abbas said he would not wait until after the U.S. presidential elections in November, which he said U.S. administration officials had requested, before asking the UN General Assembly to upgrade the Palestinian Authority from “observer” status to that of a state without full membership in the United Nations.
“In another month the picture will become clearer,” a source quoted Abbas as saying. “If I don’t receive a positive response from Netanyahu, I will resume the UN process and ask the UN General Assembly to receive the status of a nonmember state.”
Abbas made the comments in a meeting with former Meretz chairman Yossi Beilin and others involved in promoting the Geneva Initiative, an unofficial 2003 proposal for an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord.
The PA president “told us he was determined to rock the boat, because the present situation cannot continue,” one of the meeting’s participants said.
Abbas discussed Beilin’s recent article in Foreign Policy magazine, in which Beilin – one of the architects of the Oslo Accords – wrote in an open letter to Abbas that he should dismantle the Palestinian Authority’s institutions and declare an end to the Oslo process. Abbas said PA officials have discussed dismantling the Palestinian Authority and that the issue will rise again if the Palestinians resume seeking UN membership.
Abbas pledged during the meeting that the Palestinians will continue to cooperate with Israel on security matters as long as he is in office, and that PA leaders will continue to try to prevent violence.
The Qibya incident is a black mark on Israeli history. Sharon acted on orders from higher up. But the background is important. Hundreds of Israelis had been murdered by infiltrators over the de facto border and it was resolved to adopt the British method of dealing with raids over the border – a punitive expedition. Qibya was the result. The Israeli Government then resolved never to do it again – that is the difference, CuriousAmerican.
CuriousAmerican:
You are criticized for putting the Palestinians in their camps, on the one hand, and the Warsaw Ghetto, on the other, on the same moral plane. That is outrageous, and silly. Give me – us – a break.
I remember during the summer of 2010, in the wake of the Gaza flotilla incident, watching interviews of Palestinians in Gaza on Al Jazeera. Well-fed, well-dressed, plump Palestinians in well-stocked shops. Ever see the malls and beach resorts in Gaza? Gotta entertain all those BBC and CNN journalists somehow….
Comparing that to the Warsaw Ghetto????
No, sorry, WE ARE BETTER. BY LIGHT YEARS.
How many of those “Jewish radicals” you reference blew themselves up at cafes so as to kill teenagers? How many fired rockets and mortars at civilian areas? How many hijacked civilian transportation so as to drive them into buildings and kill many more people? C’mon…..
You seem like an othewise well-informed and well-intentioned person, CA. Suprised I have to point out any of this to you. You have lots of info…but what a lack of perspective! To you, a jaywalker is about as bad as an axe-murderer!
Jordan=Palestine will work, because it is reality, CA. At least 70% of the people that live there TODAY are Palestinian. Probably more. One of their leading democracy activists – Mudar Zahran; you should Google him – says it is more like 92%. That makes sense. Most of the ones who call themselves “Jordanian” are really Palestinain Arabs. What the hell is a ‘Jordanian’??? Why is the country called ‘Jordan’ in the first place? BECAUSE IT IS ADJACENT TO THE JORDAN RIVER. Is there a distinct national ethnic polity whose unique culture rises to the level of deserving self-determination, known as “Mississippians”???? See my point?
Jordan in it’s present form is the REAL apartheid state. Home rule for the vast majority there is the truly just solution. It won’t happen next week, but it will happen.
For 2,000 years the Jews dreamt of Jerusalem and would not give the dream up.
Do you seriously expect dispossessed Arabs to be any less stubborn than you?
Half or more of these Arabs never picked up a gun to shoot Jews. Not in 1948,
not in 1956, not in 1967, not in 1973 … etc.
If they had, there would have been a lot more dead Jews.
They got stuck in camps.
Israel told the Arabs to take the Palestinians back.
The Arabs told Israel to take the Palestinians back.
And, these people, stuck in the middle, were left to rot
in camps, and so they got angry. Lebanon and Jordan are classic
cases.
People without hope get violent, even wonderful people.
How do we knwo this?
In 19th century Eastern Europe, the Jews were without hope. Pogrom after pogrom.
Look at the list of 19th and 20th century violent radicals, and ask: How many were Jews?
The answer: A LOT OF THEM!
When people are pushed into ghettoes/camps they get violent. The Jews did in Eastern Europe.
Did you expect better behavior from the Palestinians?
Palestinians got violent in the camps. Their lives were rotting away into
hopelessness in Lebanon and Jordan.
Jews got violent in the Warsaw Ghetto.
People without hope get violent.
Did the Palestinians ask the Lebanese to refuse to naturalize them?
Did the Palestinians ask the Syrians to refuse to naturalize them?
Did the Palestinians ask the Egyptians to refuse to naturalize them?
Did the Palestinians ask the Israelis to refuse to let them to return?
They are genuinely stuck without hope!
So yes I pity them.
You want blood vengence; I want them to be relocated by buying them out.
For this, I am criticized?!
Oh! For pete’s sake, check your facts. Abbas was a bureaucrat more than a militant. He is a paper-pusher at best. He is/was not Arafat.
Ariel Sharon Killed innocents in 1953 at the Qibya Massacre.
There are enough war crimes on both sides to go around.
Sharon was an Arab-child-killer.
STOP TRYING TO SAY: WE ARE BETTER THAN THE ARABS and move towards LET’S JUST GET THE PROBLEM SOLVED.
Is your goal in life to humiliate the Arabs until they cry “Uncle,” or do you want them out of the West Bank?
Even if you are better, is getting the Arabs to admit it your goal?
If you want the West Bank, buy the Arabs out with a new life in South America.
IS THIS JUST?! No, it ignores the wrongs done to the Sephardim.
The Arab get money and South America, the Jews get the Holy Land.
But it will work.
Leave justice up to God.
Instead of beating the Arabs, outwit them.
The Arabs gave the world the word “bazaar.”
They are horse traders at heart.
Offer them money and prosperity in South America and they will leave.
THIS IS DOABLE!
All you have to do is evacuate the West Bank. The Palestinians in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Gaza are NOT Israel’s problem. Let them remain, stew, and vent their rage on the Arab nations after that.
The basic error made here is that much of your JORDAN IS PALESTINE theory assumes the Arabs will suddenly become heart-felt Zionists, and obligingly move to JORDAN, without major bloodshed.
It would be nice if they did, but they won’t.
The second error is that you assume the leadership will never give up its dream of destroying Israel; and that his will ruin a re-location project.
Well, the re-location project would work AROUND the leadership. It assumes that average Arab can be bought out. Arab corruption is evidence this is a fair assumption. Offer each individual Arab $100,000 (either in cash, or in land, house and property) to move to South America. A family of 5 gets either $500,000 or instead a house, land and property in South America with a family car.
Half of the West Bank would take that offer in ten minutes. Offer it to the landless Arabs first. When the West Bank starts emptying out, the remaining Arabs will panic, and you can drop the money offer accordingly. Last one to sell out gets the lowest compensation.
The Arab leadership cannot stop this. So let them dream on. If Abbas is the last hold out, so what. He gets the least amount of Cash to move to Uruguay then.
You see you make three (3) fatal flaws in your plans.
1)You assume the Arabs will accept Jordan is Palestine. THEY WON’T
2)You assume the Arab leadership is running the show. THEY AREN’T
3)You assume the individual Arab cannot be bought out. THEY CAN.
Stop worrying about how you can deliver vengence.
Go for a practical resolution.
Once you clear out the West Bank, the Palestinians in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Gaza/Egypt become the problem of the Arabs. They will have no choice but to vent their rage on the Arab states at that point.
Is your desire for vengence so strong that a practical solution is distasteful to you?
IS THIS SOLUTION JUST?!
NO!
But it will avoid bloodshed.
To CuriousAmerican:
It is the Palestinian Authority and Arab Muslim countries’ dream to perpetrate a Second Holocaust on Israel’s Jews. The Koran teaches Muslims, hate, violence and murder of non-Muslims. Jews are targeted first.
It is totally lacking in ethics for anyone to show respect, or pay any attention to Jew-killer, Abbas, who financed the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games.
Their blood cries out!
Curious American,
Suppose I turned the words of your post around and said, “…but I seriously doubt the Palestinians want to give up their dream of a Palestinian state in place of Israel (i.e., it wants to destroy the current Jewish state that is there and replace it).” Arafat, and Abbas, have made it clear in Arabic that this is what they want. In my opinion, they have not given up the sentiment that the Jews should be thrown into the sea. This, despite all the years of the “peace process” and raising the hopes of everyone.
“If Israel does nothing…Hamas launches bombs.” Israel withdrew entirely from Gaza, which should have been evidence of good faith, and instead of reaching out the Palestinians chose to continue to claim “occupation” and act as if the Israelis had done nothing. When the Palestinians voted for government in Gaza, they voted for Hamas, the more “radical” (as opposed to the supposed “moderate”) Palestinians. When Israel took action to defend its citizens, it was condemned around the world. And I hold Abbas responsible for Hamas’ actions; we cannot negotiate peace with only part of his people.
“If Israel negotiates…Abbas does nothing.” Even with a settlement “freeze,” Abbas waited nine months to even begin the negotiations, then when he didn’t get what he wanted he refused to do anything unless Israel continued the freeze. This indicates bad faith on the Palestinians’ part. Previously, the Palestinians still negotiated during the construction. If Abbas were truly interested in a solution, he would negotiate one in which the Israelis’ needs were met (including the issues of settlements, borders, and Jerusalem). I have not seen where Abbas negotiated for anything but peace on the Palestinians’ terms only. Israel has every right to reject this just like Abbas is rejecting everything the Israelis want.
You ask me to “have pity on the Palestinians. They are in a bad place.” I am sorry, but I no longer have any pity for the Palestinians. They have no pity for us. The Palestinians had plenty of opportunity to make a just peace, but they only want Israel to cave into their demands without meeting the Israeli’s demands. Therefore, don’t be surprised if they will in the end get nothing–and they will only have themselves to blame. For years, I was hopeful of the “peace process” and the possibility of peace. But it can only happen if the Palestinians (and the Arabs generally) recognize that Israel is going to remain in the region as a Jewish state within secure and recognized borders. If not, there will not be peace.
Let’s be honest.
I am NOT criticizing Israel, but I seriously doubt Israel wants to give up Judea and Samaria.
If Abbas does nothing … Israel builds.
If Abbas negotiates … Israel builds.
Israel is using the building as a club to get Abbas to accept a bad deal.
I am not saying Israel is wrong.
But have pity on the Palestinians. They are in a bad place.
They are stuck between Israel and Arab states which treat them as pawns.
In other words, if Israel does NOT capitulate to a PA ultimatum, the PA will return to last year’s unilateral stunts that went nowhere.
If Abu Bluff really wanted peace, he wouldn’t need to send Israel’s Prime Minister a letter. He could sit down at the table.
This is just another maneuver by the Palestinian Arabs to blame Israel and avoid having to negotiate with Israel in the first place.