Israel Matzav

Abu Bluff tells J Street he'd prefer 'negotiations' but 'please help me with Congress'

In Ramallah on Sunday, 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen, met with a delegation from J Street, the pro-'Palestinian,' pro-Obama organization for Leftists and supporters of Iran. Abu Bluff told his visitors that he would really rather have 'negotiations' with Israel than go to the UN, if only Israel would concede all of the negotiating points in advance. J Street promptly advised Israel to try it.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday said he would postpone a United Nations vote on unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state scheduled for September if he saw diplomatic progress with Israel was being made.

"If progress was recorded in negotiations, September would become a meaningless deadline because our preference is a peace process," Abbas was quoted by Army Radio as saying during a meeting with J-Street officials at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Steve Krubiner, Israel and international programs director for J Street who sat in on the meeting with Abbas, said the statement came in response to a question raised by the left-leaning advocacy group.

“We asked him directly: If a credible plan were put on the table to bring you back to the negotiations and how would that effect September?” Krubiner said over the phone from Ramallah. “He said his number one preference is negotiations and the UN route is a fallback.”

Krubuner said the parameters mentioned by Abbas for restarting talks were the same as those put forward several months ago by Western countries involved in the negotiations

“A two or three months’ settlement freeze might bring him back at the table,” he said. “If I were Israel or America I would test it.”

Why? Even if we did this and it worked, what would bringing this intransigent boor to the table accomplish?

Less widely publicized were other remarks Abu Bluff made to J Street.

“We need your help with Congress,” Mr. Abbas told the visitors from J Street, a group that calls itself pro-Israel and pro-peace. “I hear rumors that Hamas will be in the West Bank, or that it will share authority here. This will not happen. The new government will comply with my policies, and I am against terror and violence.”

Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, said he would “bring back to Washington the message that this may be the last opportunity with a Palestinian leader willing to say yes to peace with Israel.” He said he would urge the White House to offer a plan to create a Palestinian state based on the 1967 lines with agreed-upon land swaps and a request of Israel to pause West Bank settlement building for two to three months.

Those are the two conditions under which Mr. Abbas told the group that he would return to peace negotiations with Israel.

“This is our first choice, negotiations,” Mr. Abbas told the group at a lunch he hosted at his West Bank headquarters.

If only Israel would agree to commit suicide everything would be okay, eh? By the way, if Abu Bluff is the 'last opportunity' what happens to any agreement that is signed with him once he goes away?

Labels: Abu Mazen, J Street, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, two-state solution

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:31 PM