Israel Matzav

'Get off my back'

I guess that 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen figures it doesn't matter what he says anymore. No one will listen anyway. They'll just give him whatever he wants (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).

The Palestinian Authority will not be recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday, adopting a belligerent tone ahead of his planned statehood bid in September.

The Palestinian leader also criticized demands made by the International Quartet of his Authority, urging the international community to back off. "Don't order us to recognize a Jewish state," Abbas said. "We won't accept it."

...

Responding to the Palestinian leader's defiant message, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the statement "reveals the true nature of the September motion: A Palestinian state to come in place of a Jewish state."

"Countries around the world must make it clear to Abbas that the only way the Palestinians will be able to have a state is by stopping their attempt to destroy the only Jewish state in the world," Lieberman said.

Avigdor, zeh pashut! (It's simple). That's what they have always wanted! If you think they want anything other than to destroy the Jewish state, please consider this:

As the Jerusalem Post reports, in an interview with a Jordanian newspaper, Abbas made it clear even if the General Assembly of the United Nations voted to recognize an independent Palestinian state in the 1967 lines, the PA would continue to insist on the “right of return” for Arab refugees to swamp Israel.

If he gets his way, Abbas will have a Jew-free state in the West Bank and Gaza next to a Jewish state that will have to live under the threat of being deluged with Palestinians who would transform it into yet another Arab state. That helps explain why he continues to refuse to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state. But, along with this promise of unending strife, Abbas’ statement also points to another issue that explains why his UN initiative represents more of a danger to the PA than it does to Israel.

...

Abbas’ remarks about not giving up the right of return also illustrate the zero-sum nature of the conflict from the Palestinian frame of reference. Abbas still balks at recognizing the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders would be drawn. Left-wing critics of Israel dismiss this as a non-issue, but the PLO and the PA it spawned came into being fighting against the existence of Israel before the so-called “occupation” of the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinian national identity is inseparable from the idea of opposing Zionist sovereignty over any part of the country and of returning refugees to pre-1967 Israel.

This is why Abbas and his predecessor Yasir Arafat have always refused Israeli offers of an independent state no matter the terms. Though their UN gambit is creating legal problems for the PA, the refugee issue shows it must nonetheless stick to it simply because Abbas’ overriding imperative is to avoid peace talks at any price.

Of course, none of this will stop the General Assembly from rubber-stamping a 'Palestinian state.' But perhaps it ought to make moral people of conscience think twice about joining the pile-on.

Labels: Palestinian refugees, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, two-state solution, unilateral declaration of statehood, United Nations General Assembly

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:40 PM