It was not the first time a Palestinian flag flew at the Knesset. In July 1999, then-Knesset speaker Avraham Burg hosted his Palestinian counterpart Ahmed Qurei, and there were Palestinian flags all over the parliament.I want to see what happens when and if they go to Ramallah. I'd bet on zero turnout from the 'Palestinian parliament' and a riot if the Israelis actually show up. And no flag.
The caucus's chairman, Labor MK Hilik Bar, said that just like he got 30 of the 120 MKs to come to meet the Palestinian delegation at the Knesset, when the group comes to Ramallah, he expects one fourth of the Palestinian parliament to greet them. It will be up to One Voice, a pro-peace lobby at the parliaments in Jerusalem and Ramallah to work on the Palestinian turn-out.
Besides Madani and Zananiri, the Palestinian delegation included Prisoners Affairs Minister Ashraf Al-Ajami, Palestinian Center for Dissemination of Democracy and Community Development in East Jerusalem director Walid Salem, and Abdallah Abdallah, a former deputy foreign minister who chairs the Political Committee of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
The Knesset members included Shas MK Yitzhak Cohen and ministers Yael German and Amir Peretz from coalition parties Yesh Atid and Hatnua but no legislators came from Likud Beytenu or Bayit Yehudi. Speaking in Hebrew, Al-Ajami called upon the MKs in the caucus to persuade Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to keep the nascent diplomatic process going until an agreement is reached that would create a Palestinian state.
"There has to be pressure from the Knesset and the Israeli public on the government to go all the way," Al-Ajami said. "Abbas is taking huge risk by going to peace talks. I don't want to talk about a last chance for peace, but we're both in trouble if it fails."
Remember 1993-2000 when we taught our kids about peace and empathizing with 'the other' and they taught their kids to murder Jews?
What could go wrong?
Ten years ago when Sharon signed the Roadmap in i Aqaba, there were American, Jordanian and palestinian flags but no Israeli flags during the entire summit. The Jordanians were afraid the presence of Israeli flags would lead to rioting.
ReplyDeleteSharon should've insisted or called the whole thing off.