Former 'Palestinian Prime Minister' Abu Allah (Ahmad Qrei) was arrested for speeding near Maaleh Adumim on Saturday. The car in which Abu Allah was traveling (yes, of course this poor 'Palestinian' has a Mercedes driven by a chauffeur) was caught going 145 kph (90 mph) in an 80 kph (50 mph) zone.
The car's driver ignored requests by Judea and Samaria police to stop, forcing them to block the road with a police car.
After being stopped, Qureia's car was held for roughly 2 hours as
passengers refused to open the doors or windows of the car, reports Kikar Shabbat.
Eventually with the involvement of General Eitan Dangot, Coordinator
of Government Activities in Judea and Samaria, the car was allowed to
continue. Qureia, the driver and another passenger were summoned for investigation
The Judea and Samaria-based Arab Ma'an News Agency initially claimed the former prime minister was arrested "for no particular reason."
This is not Qureia's first run-in with the law on the roads.
Qurei and the driver were detained for three hours, after which police
ordered them to appear before the police traffic division.
Initially
Qurei refused police requests to open his car window as he sat inside
the vehicle. It was only after the intervention of government
coordinator for activities in the territories, Maj. Gen. Eitan Dangot,
that Qurei was allowed to continue onward.
Palestinian sources
told the Ma'an news agency that Qurei refused to give police his or his
driver's identification papers. The incident will be among the topics
discussed during Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations on Sunday.
Maybe the 'peace negotiators' can reach a plea bargain for Abu Allah. After all, Livni has a thing for him (see above), and the 'peace negotiators' haven't been able to agree on anything else.
Livni's bald friend calls for 'one-state solution'
Remember the picture at the top of this post? Well, former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's 'negotiating partner,' Ahmed QreiAbu Ala has called for a 'one-state solution' to the Arab-Israeli dispute. I received the following press release from the Zionist Organization of America after the holiday started here on Thursday.
Ahmed Qurei, former prime minister (2003-5, 2005-6) of the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA), senior Fatah official, head of the PLO's Department of Jerusalem Affairs, and former speaker of the Palestinian legislature, has called for a "one state solution" - the replacement of Israel by a single Arab/Muslim-dominated state.
In a recent article, Qurei wrote that the idea of a Palestinian state alongside Israel had "died" and that the PA should consider openly a one-state solution, as "this solution allows [us] to expand our maneuvering room and to continue [our] comprehensive diplomatic campaign to take [back] the basic rights of freedom, independence, and human honor that we have been denied ... The unfeasibility of the two-state solution is a fact that can be presented to the Quartet, and especially the U.S." ('Fatah Senior Official Ahmad Qurei' Calls for One-State Solution,' Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) Special Dispatch No.4642, April 9, 2012).
ZOA National Chairman of the Board Dr. Michael Goldblatt said, "Ahmed Qurei is simply being more frank than his other PA colleagues, some of whom responded to his article by saying that he was speaking in a purely personal capacity.
"As we have noted repeatedly, the Fatah/PA, despite its official policy of setting up a Palestinian state alongside Israel, openly tells its people it has never accepted Israel, will never recognize it as a Jewish state and will not cease to demand the 'right of return' - the flooding of Israel with the refugees of the 1948-9 war and their millions of descendants, a measure that would end Israel as a Jewish state."
In light of this earlier post, it's not surprising to hear that the 'Palestinians' are reconsidering the unilateral approach to the United Nations.
Among those opposed to the United Nations declaration are senior officials, including PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, former Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and the former Palestinian UN envoy Nasser al-Qudwa. The latter's opposition is particularly significant because he is considered the most experienced Palestinian official when it comes to dealing with the United Nations. He is also considered likely to run for PA president after Abbas retires.
"More and more senior Palestinians are beginning to reconsider the approach to the United Nations," said a senior European diplomat who met about a week ago with two Palestinian ministers.
An Israeli official who met with senior Palestinians and who disagrees with the move said, "Some of them are beginning to understand that approaching the United Nations might hurt Israel, but it won't help the Palestinians."
Opponents say a declaration of statehood in the United Nations could negatively impact relations with the United States, especially with the U.S. Congress. Six months ago, Congress passed a resolution, albeit a declarative one only, stating that it would oppose a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood in the United Nations.
Opponents also say that even if the resolution passes in the General Assembly, there would be no change on the ground, which could mean escalation to a new intifada. They also say that such a declaration could provide the Palestinians a state within provisional borders, taking issues like East Jerusalem and refugees off the table.
Senior PA figures Saeb Erekat and Nabil Abu Rudaineh met on Monday in Washington with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. They conveyed a message from Abbas to Clinton and other senior U.S. officials that the PA was ready to return to the negotiating table on the basis of President Barack Obama's May 19 speech - supporting a two-state solution based on 1967 borders with agreed swaps of territory - but only if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly expresses similar willingness.
And apparently only if Netanyahu agrees to an officially renewed 'settlement freeze.' Don't hold your breaths waiting for that to happen.
At a time when the 'Palestinian Authority' is urging Jordan to revoke the Jordanian citizenship of 'Palestinian refugees' who have lived in Jordan for generations - in order to 'consolidate their Palestinian identity' - 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen and Fatah's former Gaza thug in chief Mohamed Dahlan (who are themselves rivals) have both taken out Jordanian citizenship. And they're not alone. So has Abu Bluff's entire family and most of the 'Palestinian' leadership.
Atef Tarawneh, deputy speaker of the Jordanian parliament, denounced the decision to revoke the citizenship of thousands of Jordanians of Palestinian origin.
Tarawneh said that the decision was “harmful” to national unity and the constitution in Jordan.
He added that he recently met with King Abdullah II and warned him against the repercussions of revoking the citizenships. He said that the decision has harmed investment in the kingdom because dozens of Jordanian-Palestinian businessmen living abroad were afraid to return home out of fear that the authorities would confiscate their passports.
According to the Londonbased Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, a significant number of PA leaders are registered as full Jordanian citizens.
The paper pointed out that the leaders applied for Jordanian citizenship at a time when they were urging the Jordanian authorities to stop giving Palestinians Jordanian citizenship, in order to “consolidate their Palestinian identity.” The Jordanian government had justified its decision to strip Palestinians of their citizenship by using the same argument.
However, the Jordanians have long seen the Palestinian majority in the kingdom as a demographic threat.
The decision to rescind the citizenship of tens of thousands of Palestinians is seen in the context of this fear.
Al-Quds Al-Arabi quoted sources in Amman as saying that Abbas and his entire family carry Jordanian passports.
Other PA leaders who carry Jordanian passports include former PA prime minister Ahmed Qurei, Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh and Fatah’s Muhammad Dahlan.
The paper did not say when the Palestinian officials were given Jordanian citizenship. PA spokesmen in Ramallah refused to comment on the report.
A Fatah official, however, said that he was not surprised to hear that Palestinian leaders were carrying Jordanian passports. He said he believed most of the PA leaders had applied for and received Jordanian passports in the past 15 years.
In an editorial, Al-Quds Al- Arabi criticized the Palestinian leaders who applied for Jordanian citizenship.
“This is shameful for them because they and their families should be proud of their Palestinian citizenship,” the paper wrote. “If they don’t believe in their own citizenship and are not proud of it, this means that they are not loyal to the Palestinian Authority and don’t deserve to speak on its behalf.”
The paper noted that it was the PA leaders who had asked for Jordanian citizenship, and not the Jordanians who had offered it.
“They were the ones who applied for it, and perhaps they had embarrassed senior Jordanian government officials with the requests,” it wrote.
The Jordanians were unable to reject the applications “out of courtesy and generosity,” the paper said.
'Palestinian citizenship' is kind of like American taxes: It's for the little people. No wonder Abu Bluff and his crew get along so well with the Obami.
The 'Palestinians' hit back at al-Jazeera on Monday night for articles like this one and for videos like the one I am going to show you below.
The Palestine Papers, then, underscore the seeming impossibility of resolving the status of settlements like Ma’ale Adumim and Ariel: Palestinian negotiators cannot accept them, and Israeli negotiators cannot dismantle them.
There is a third option, which Palestinian negotiators raised in several meetings: those Jewish settlements could be allowed to remain as part of the future Palestinian state. Ahmed Qurei made that suggestion to Tzipi Livni several times in 2008, including this exchange in June:
Qurei: Perhaps Ma’ale Adumim will remain under Palestinian sovereignty, and it could be a model for cooperation and coexistence.
Livni: The matter is not simply giving a passport to settlers.
The Israeli foreign minister refused to entertain the idea. “You know this is not realistic,” she told Qurei in May.
Asked about Qurei’s offer earlier this month, residents in Ma’ale Adumim reacted with a mix of laughter and disbelief. Some wrote it off as a political impossibility; others worried about their safety, claiming that they would be killed.
There is, in other words, seemingly no mutually acceptable policy for Ma’ale Adumim, Ariel, and other major West Bank settlements within a two-state solution – a fact the Bush administration was willing to acknowledge in July 2008.
Rice: I don’t think that any Israeli leader is going to cede Ma’ale Adumim.
Qurei: Or any Palestinian leader.
Rice: Then you won’t have a state!
Rice may prove to be correct: Two and a half years later, the parties are no closer to a solution on settlements, and the Israeli government may be gearing up to issue a “massive” new round of housing permits for illegal settlers in the West Bank.
Let's go to the videotape.
How long did it take you to notice the line that said "reconstruction" in the top left corner?
There are three possibilities here: The documents are true, or the documents are not true and al-Jazeera did this because Qatar has tired of the 'Palestinians,' or the documents are not true and al-Jazeera did this because Qatar wants to see Fatah replaced by Hamas. I'm inclined to the third possibility. I am becoming more and more convinced that Melanie Phillips is right and that these documents don't reflect the real 'Palestinian' position. I find it hard to believe that the sleazy Olmert would have passed on what al-Jazeera claims the 'Palestinians' offered.
But Amjad Atallah, who claims he was there, claims that the documents are real.
I was one of the legal advisors for the Palestinian negotiating team from November 2000 to November 2003 and took my fair share of minutes and notes, though the Taba talks in 2001 were the only formal permanent status negotiations during my stint.
This story is only beginning and it's impossible to predict where it will lead, but I think there are three points that stand out right away from the analysis and revelations in both AJE and the Guardian newspaper (which has also had access to the documents.)
The first is that the documents kill, with great gusto, the myth created by President Bill Clinton that the Palestinians were not a partner at Camp David and that Palestinians were to blame for the lack of a two-state deal. I knew this of course from being there, but apparently 10 years of documents showing Palestinian concessions that would be shocking to the Palestinian public mean that you would have to be ideologically committed to ignoring reality to still think the Palestinians were the problem.
I don't know what the ramifications of this will be in the United States or Europe, but if there is no impact on Western policy it will confirm that a United States deferential only to Israel and a Europe deferential only to the United States cannot be part of the solution.
The second point is that the Palestinian negotiating team, composed of literally a handful of men, will no longer be able to continue with business as usual. Palestinian negotiations were based on three assumptions: The first is that Israel actually wants a two-state deal; the second is that even if Israel did not, the United States would be able to pressure it into acting in its own self-interest (at least as the Americans and Palestinians saw it); and third that Palestinians had no alternative to never-ending negotiations.
It is doubtful that Palestinians will be able to continue maintaining those assumptions.
The third and final point is that the context of these leaks comes at a time when its impact may be amplified. WikiLeaks' data dump of U.S. diplomatic records; the demonstrations in Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen; and Hezbollah's success in Lebanon have created an atmosphere of empowerment among a normally dispirited Arab public. Change is no longer impossible -- and the United States no longer needs to be the agent of change.
This means there may be more exhibitions of "people power" with unpredictable consequences. The Arab authoritarian systems (most with the support of the U.S. government) are ill-equipped to deal positively with this type of demand for change.
Different forces in the region will now begin to see how they can take advantage for good or bad from this new reality. Unfortunately, if the United States stays true to form, we'll simply struggle to see whether we can maintain the status quo.
Of course, if Atallah is correct and this is the true position of the 'Palestinian' negotiators perhaps they should have started preparing their 'people' for compromise - something they have not done to this day.
An angry crowd on Monday vandalized the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera's Ramallah office, onlookers said.
Security forces stepped in after a dozen youths broke a security gate at the building before entering it and sprayed graffiti.
Al-Jazeera International correspondent Alan Fisher wrote on his Twitter page that no one was injured before police arrived.
Footage of the incident posted on YouTube later Monday showed a handful of young Palestinians shouting and chanting slogans at Al-Jazeera's staff. One tells a photographer to stop filming.
Let's go to the videotape.
And the 'Palestinian Authority' accused al-Jazeera of making war on them.
“Al-Jazeera has declared war on the Palestinians,” the official told The Jerusalem Post. “This station serves the interests of the enemies of the Palestinians.”
Asked if the PA was now considering measures against Al-Jazeera, the official said he did not see how a TV station that “incites” against the Palestinians would be able to continue operating in the West Bank. However, he said that PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who is currently in Cairo, would decide on the PA’s response to the exposure of the documents in the coming hours.
Opposition leader and former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni reacted to the Palileaks disclosures on Monday.
"Today it is also clear that the process did not fail and was not exhausted," Livni said in a speech in a ceremony honoring 62 years since the Knesset's founding. "It did not end, but was not allowed to ripen until an agreement was reached because of elections in Israel and this government's choice not to continue the negotiations."
"I was discreet throughout the negotiations over the course of many months, in order to increase the chances of an agreement, even at a personal political cost," she said. "A peace agreement that will end the conflict and protect the national and security interests of Israel is possible."
"Today it is clear to everyone that during the previous government, we built a responsible and serious process that would allow an end to the conflict, while protecting all of Israel's interests," Livni added.
That's questionable - to say the least. They offered to give the 'Palestinians' huge amounts of land, they opened the Pandora's box of the 'refugees,' and they got nothing in return.
But Livni has bigger problems. She is widely seen here as one of the big losers as a result of Palileaks, because if the documents are true, they confirm many Israelis' belief that Livni is too soft to be Prime Minister.
Then-foreign minister Tzipi Livni mentioned that Israel was "giving up the Golan" in peace talks with Syria, during negotiations with Palestinian Negotiator Ahmed Qurei, as revealed in the Palestine Papers leaked on Sunday.
In a document from May 21, 2008, Qurei congratulates Livni on talks with Syria, which she rebuffs, saying "it's not official. Talks are going on through Turkey."
In the same meeting, when negotiating the borders of a Palestinian State, Livni says "we're giving up the Golan, so we need more in Beitar Illit."
Qurei responds: "Yes, you make us pay the price." Later on, he says: "When I see your map, I advise you to go to Syria first. It will help us. We cannot accept Maale Adumim, Givat Zeev and Ariel. If this is your proposal, let us wait. I am serious."
"I could have said the same thing when you showed us your map," Livni retorted.
Qurei says he hopes that peace talks with Syria will help the Palestinians. "Iran is against us, Qatar is against us," he lamented.
The Palestine Papers, however, come off badly for the leader of Israel’s opposition, Tzipi Livni, who was then-PM Ehud Olmert’s foreign minister at the time and one of the dramatis personae of the negotiations. Livni’s political liability is that too many Israelis think she isn’t tough enough to be prime minister. She has a tendency to denigrate her own side as a way of ingratiating herself to hostile audiences. To this day, she forcefully criticizes her own country and government while abroad and in front of audiences who have little affection for Israel (see her recent appearance with ABC’s Christiane Amanpour). She seems to think this wins her points for impartiality.
The Palestine Papers show her doing much the same in private, offering to collude with the Palestinians to invent pretexts for letting terrorists out of jail and dismissing Israel’s claim to the Golan Heights (“We’re giving up the Golan”). These indulgences may stick in voters’ minds in Israel and make it that much harder for her to dispel the fear that if awarded the premiership, she’ll give the store away.
There are some fascinating 'Palestinian' reactions to the Palileaks documents here. The bottom line is that they all deny the truth of the documents, and some of them even go after the Emir of Qatar for authorizing what they see as an attack on the 'Palestinian Authority.'
One of the most interesting questions that arises out of what's already known here as Palileaks is who leaked the documents and why now. Here's some speculation.
[Former peace processor Aaron David] Miller suggested that the Palestinians may have leaked the documents in an attempt to counter Israeli claims that they are the obstacle to peace.
"You have to ask yourself the question: why have these documents appeared now? The answer is that the Palestinians, as part of a campaign to gain international support and recognition for the legitimacy of Palestinian statehood and to increase pressure not only on the Israelis but the Americans, have chosen to say to the world: look, it's not so hard.
"Previous Israeli governments were interested in a serious negotiation. So why can't we have one now based on the principles that previous Israeli governments have agreed to?"
The Guardian is coy about the sources of the documents.
The documents – almost all of which are in English, which was the language used by both sides in negotiations – were leaked over a period of months from several sources to al-Jazeera. The bulk of them have been independently authenticated for the Guardian by former participants in the talks and by diplomatic and intelligence sources.
...
After the breakdown of the Camp David talks, which Clinton and Israeli leaders blamed on Yasser Arafat and a lack of technical Palestinian preparation, Palestinian leaders went to great lengths to ensure that the fullest records and supporting documents were drawn up for later talks. Among NSU staff, the Arab-American lawyer Zeinah Salahi drew up many of the meeting records, while others were made by the French-Palestinian lawyer Ziyad Clot, author of a book about the negotiations, Il n'y aura pas d'Etat Palestinien (There will be no Palestinian state).
The role of the NSU in the negotiations has caused tensions among West Bank-based Palestinian leaders and officials, and widespread resentment about the salaries paid to its most senior managers, notably Adam Smith International's Andrew Kuhn, who stepped down from running the unit last year.
But as the negotiations have increasingly been seen to have failed, and the Ramallah-based PA leadership has come to be regarded by many Palestinians as illegitimate or unrepresentative, discontent among NSU staff has grown and significant numbers have left. There has also been widespread discontent in the organisation at the scale and nature of concessions made in the talks.
...
Some Fatah leaders are likely to accuse al-Jazeera of having an anti-PA agenda by publishing the leaked documents, which they believe will benefit their Hamas rivals, backed by Iran — as shown in critical comments about the TV station in the documents themselves.
Relations between al-Jazeera, the most widely watched TV channel in the Middle East, and the PA leadership have often been strained after it has run reports regarded by the administration as hostile – as is the case with regimes throughout the region.
The documents have been redacted to remove details such as email addresses, phone numbers or other information that could identify those who leaked them.
So who disclosed the documents? The 'Palestinians' themselves? The Negotiating Support Unit (which is supported by the Europeans and has taken a harder line than the 'Palestinians' themselves)? An Arab country that received the documents from the 'Palestinians'?
And why were they disclosed? There's no Julian Assange here who is trying to bring down the 'Palestinian Authority.' Or is there?
Who benefits from this disclosure? Clearly Hamas does.
Who loses by this disclosure? Aside from the 'Palestinian Authority' - whose constituents were probably totally shocked to discover what their representatives were discussing with the Israelis - other losers are Tzipi Livni and Barak Obama.
'Palestinians' were willing to concede all Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem except Har Homa
In supposedly earth-shattering news, both Al-Jazeera and al-Guardian have reported that the 'Palestinians' offered to let Israel keep all of the Jewish suburbs of Jerusalem except Har Homa (population 9,331, or about as many Jews as were expelled from Gaza five and a half years ago, most of whom still have no place to live). The 'Palestinians' are denying the reports.
Palestinians were prepared to compromise over two of the toughest issues, Jerusalem and refugees, during peace talks in 2008, the Al-Jazeera TV channel reported Sunday, quoting from documents it said came from the talks.
Palestinian negotiators quickly denied the reports, saying parts of the documents were fabricated. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he has kept Arab countries fully briefed on the negotiations with Israel.
Al-Jazeera said the Palestinians offered to let Israel keep all but one of the Jewish enclaves it build in east Jerusalem after capturing it in the 1967 Mideast war. About 200,000 Israelis live there now.
In return, according to the quoted documents, the Palestinians wanted Israeli land, including a section close to the West Bank-Israel line where many of Israel's minority Arab citizens live.
Also, they proposed international control of the key Jerusalem holy site as a temporary measure. The Palestinians, Israel, the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan would administer the site where the Al Aqsa Mosque compound sits atop the ruins of the biblical Jewish temples, until Israel and the Palestinians could work out a permanent arrangement.
On the issue of refugees, the documents said the Palestinians agreed that Israel would take in 10,000 refugees a year for 10 years — a total of 100,000. The Palestinians have insisted that all refugees from the 1948-49 war and their descendants — several million people — have the right to return to Israel. The Israelis have always rejected that as a threat to the Jewish character of their state.
The chief Palestinian negotiator in the 2008 talks, Ahmed Qureia, told The Associated Press that "many parts of the documents were fabricated, as part of the incitement against the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian leadership."
He denied making an offer about the Jewish enclaves in east Jerusalem, claiming that Israel refused to discuss the issue.
The current chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, dismissed the TV report as "lies and half truths."
They can deny it all they want, but much of this has been reported before. In fact, it was reported more than a year ago.
JPost also reports that the 'Palestinians' put forward a proposal under which they would get 98.1% of Judea and Samaria.
The Palestinians were willing forego only 1.9% of the Judea and Samaria territories, but they were willing to accept that Gush Etziyon, Modi'in and several other settlement remain in Israeli hands.
In Jerusalem, the Palestinians were willing to accept the neighborhoods of Ramot, Ramot Alon, Ramat Shlomo, Pisgat Ze'ev, Neve Ya'akov, Ma'alot Dafna, French Hill and Gilo, the southern neighborhood which has recently become a sticking point not with the Palestinians but with the United States after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced that Israel would build several hundred new housing units there.
However, according to the report, the Palestinians themselves have [should be "had" CiJ] agreed to forego areas where they now demand Israel implement a complete halt to construction.
Over at al-Guardian, Jonathan Freedland wonders who will be hurt by these disclosures (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).
Many on the Palestinian streets will recoil to read not just the concessions offered by their representatives – starting with the yielding of those parts of East Jerusalem settled by Israeli Jews – but the language in which those concessions were made.
To hear their chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, tell the Israelis that the Palestinians are ready to concede "the biggest Yerushalayim in Jewish history" – even using the Hebrew word for the city – will strike many as an act of humiliation.
Referring to Ariel Sharon as a "friend" will offend those Palestinians who still revile the former prime minister as the "Butcher of Beirut" for his role in the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
Telling Tzipi Livni, Israel's then foreign minister, on the eve of national elections "I would vote for you" will strike many Palestinians as grovelling of a shameful kind.
It is this tone which will stick in the throat just as much as the substantive concessions on land or, as the Guardian will reveal in coming days, the intimate level of secret co-operation with Israeli security forces or readiness of Palestinian negotiators to give way on the highly charged question of the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
Of course it should be said that this cache of papers is not exhaustive and may have been leaked selectively; other documents might provide a rather different impression. Nevertheless, these texts will do enormous damage to the standing of the Palestinian Authority and to the Fatah party that leads it. Erekat himself may never recover his credibility.
But something even more profound is at stake: these documents could discredit among Palestinians the very notion of negotiation with Israel and the two-state solution that underpins it.
And yet there might also be an unexpected boost here for the Palestinian cause. Surely international opinion will see concrete proof of how far the Palestinians have been willing to go, ready to move up to and beyond their "red lines", conceding ground that would once have been unthinkable – none more so than on Jerusalem.
He goes on to say that Israel will be made to look bad by these papers. I disagree. I don't think any of the 'Palestinian' concessions here are so earth shattering - they're largely in line with what most people expected. And I don't think anyone will see Israel in a bad light (except those who already do, which unfortunately is much of the world), because there is so much we are already conceding here, and because what's left unsaid is who put a stop to the 2008 negotiations. We all know the answer to that last question: The 'Palestinians' stopped them when Operation Cast Lead started.
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni's bald friend, Ahmad QreiAbu Ala, gave a two-hour harangue at Tel Aviv University on Thursday, in which he decried, among other things, Israel's 'paranoia.'
Qurei apologized to the listeners if some of his remarks sounded harsh, but he said he wanted them to understand how Palestinians perceived Israelis, in hopes that it would lead to better understanding between the two peoples.
“I’m not talking to criticize,” he said. “I am telling you how the Palestinians look in the mirror and see their neighbor. The Israeli is perceived as a brutal soldier,” Qurei said.
“It is the image of one who looks down [on us]... The image of one who has no respect for our national aspiration and determination to achieve it, one who is imprisoned by his own vision as an eternal and only victim,” he said.
“Palestinians are often surprised and saddened by the Israeli society’s indifference to the constant suffering of the Palestinian people,” Qurei said.
“We often wonder how can a society that belongs to the developed world, with all its scientific, economic and military achievement, be so indifferent toward the suffering of the victims and be capable of turning a blind eye or shrinking responsibility for the agony and the pain of the Palestinians,” he said.
Unfortunately, he said, the Palestinian image of an Israeli is that of a killer of sons, husbands and wives, a soldier who is armed and arrogant and whose finger is always on the trigger.
“How can a state after 62 years of establishment and in spite of its tremendous military, economic and scientific superiority continue to live in a constant state of paranoia?” Qurei asked.
“How can a multi-ethnic, pluralistic, open, question-oriented society be infected by self-inflicted isolation coupled with symptoms of fundamentalism and racial discrimination?” he asked.
“How can they [Israelis] remain passive, how can their collective consciousness remain silent, when they see images of a woman of 80 years old being evicted from her home in Sheikh Jarrah?” he asked.
He continued to question how Israelis could accept the “looting and seizing” of West Bank Palestinian land, the construction of the “apartheid separation wall, the uprooting of trees and the arrest and torture of Palestinians.”
Qurei wanted to know how these events could take place in the era of live television, with broadcasting that transcends borders.
Israel is the “last colonial power in the post-colonial era,” he said.
Oh, I don't know. Let's start with the continuing incitement to destroy the State of Israel (and expel all its Jews) that is daily fare in the 'Palestinian' media. Let's continue with the obsession with Israel at the UN where over 120 countries(!) agreed this week to sponsor an anti-Israel resolution in the Security Council (when was the last time 120 countries agreed on anything?). Let's continue with the UN 'Human Rights' Council, whose obsession with Israel is boundless, and which has a separate agenda item for Israel, while finding nothing to criticize in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Cuba and other paragons of human rights. Let's continue with Iran's stated and continuing obsession with destroying the Jewish state. Let's continue with the 'Palestinians' refusal to accept Israel as a Jewish state. Let's continue with the 'Palestinians' murdering over 1,000 Jews between 2000 and 2004 shortly after they were offered a reichlet that would have threatened Israel and they turned it down! Do I need to go on?
By the way, could any Jewish Israeli politician speak at a 'Palestinian' university, the way Abu Bald spoke at Tel Aviv University on Thursday, and say things that the 'Palestinians' wouldn't like to hear, without endangering his or her life? (Answer: No).
It's not paranoia when they really are out to get you. And this mamzer has a hell of a nerve to lecture us about it.
'Constant suffering'? What a load of horse manure.
Fatah's Central Committee condemned as 'fabricated and groundless' a Channel 10 (cable) news report that Ahmed Qrei Abu Ala has embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars from the 'Palestinian Authority.' Abu Ala is one of Fatah's most senior members, who served as Prime Minister at one time, and negotiated with former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni until the Olmert government fell in late 2008. As usual, Fatah is being a little disingenuous....
The report questioned the relationship between President Mahmoud Abbas and Qrei'a, in particular why Abbas had excluded the former prime minister from top positions.
Further, the report said the Palestinian Authority had notified Qrei'a that it was conducting an investigation into his finances, due to suspicions that he embezzled $700 million while in public office.
Qrei'a was recently prevented from crossing Allenby Bridge into Jordan in his car. Israeli officials at the border crossing said only the president and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad could cross the bridge in government cars.
A PA statement said the "government condemned the decision," however the Channel 10 report said the PA had agreed with Israel not to let Qrei'a cross the border in his car.
Israel starts to cut the 'Palestinian' VIP count down to size
On Wednesday night, at the Allenby Bridge crossing into Jordan, Israel began to cut the number of 'Palestinian' VIP's down to size.
Israel prevented former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia from crossing into Jordan by car, Ynet reported Wednesday. The soldiers at the crossing told Qureia he would not be able to cross in his car and that he had the option to take a bus as others do.
Israel has officially announced that from now on only Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad would receive special treatment. Security establishment officials admitted that Wednesday's decision had to do with Qureia's recent statements against Israel's settlement policy.
So from now on, only 'Palestinian' leaders who want to live in peace with Israel will be allowed to cross as VIP's. By that definition, one has to wonder why Abu Bluff and Fayyad aren't told to take the bus as well.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
