So the Daily Beast is shaming Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas already for his refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
This is a new demand on Israel’s part that was not any part of earlier negotiations over a two-state solution, and that is rejected by the 20 percent of Israelis who are not Jewish. (Imagine if the US treaty with Mexico establishing a border in 1848 had included the demand that Mexico recognize us as a white country.)
And if Abbas is stubborn, what does that make Netanyahu, who has said that East Jerusalem is Jewish land?
One of the great dangers of the crumbling of the peace process is that the Palestinians will be blamed for the failure of the two-state solution. They were blamed when the two sides supposedly came so close at Camp David in 2000; Bill Clinton said that it was Arafat’s stiffnecked stance in the face of Israeli Prime Minister Barak’s generous offer that caused the talks to fail. The Daily Beast is setting Abbas up for the same spoiler’s role.
Yep. When Israel signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, for example, Israel made no such condition. The PLO recognized the state of Israel long ago now, just not the “Jewish” state of Israel. I wish Abbas would cleverly point out this obvious fact. MJ Rosenberg wrote an article about this not long ago; he speculated Bibi was just trying to avoid peace because he won’t stop expanding settlements, if memory serves. That Kerry/Obama don’t point this ruse out is very telling because it’s so easy to do.
Abbas would be insane to recognize Israel as “the Jewish State.”
Abbas is not going to accept that Israel is a Jewish state. The land belongs to the Palestinians. If Jews want to live there for the long term, it has to be on just terms.
Zionism is a complete fantasy.
The Palestinians have not endured hell since 1948 to give it all up now.
The difference this time is that more of the world is watching, and are keeping abreast of the lying, warmongering PM’s shenanigans and bs.
“”I am ready to reach the end of the conflict,” Netanyahu told Channel 10, “but this must be the end of the conflict. We will not enable the establishment of a Palestinian state in order for the conflict to continue, so (a Palestinian state) must recognize Israel as a Jewish state, just as they ask us to recognize a Palestinian state.” ”
(Palestinian State: Israel State, not Palestinian State: Jewish State!)
and
“Meanwhile, Netanyahu said to Channel 2 that while some Jewish settlements won’t be part of a framework agreement, he would make sure the number left out “will be as low as possible.”
“I will not leave any Israeli without Israeli defense,” he said. ”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.578556
Such absolute horsecrap. It’s clear that the Palestinians have done nothing to undermine any peace efforts….while Israel scrambles for new obstacles every. single. day.
And who the hell are the Daily Beast to tell the Palestinians what to do? Did anyone at the DB ever live in a refugee camp ? Did they ever have a child shot for not belonging to the right religion ?
Do they support civil rights for non whites in Alabama ? Why shouldn’t Palestinians have those rights ?
I personally rejected the Daily beast after Beinart left. Daily Beast is just a typical suck-up to Jewish money and power.
I just saw Philip Weiss on C-SPAN – very good – this Friday conference at the Press Club in DC on the “Special relationship with Israel” was astonishing – a first for TV in the USA – honest “no holds barred” criticism of Israel without any suppression. Steve Walt also gave a brilliant speech and acknowledged all our heroes including MJ Rosenberg, Philip Weiss and Max Blumenthal. Also note that we Irish did it again. Out of 3,013 valid votes of students at the National University of Ireland who participated in the referendum on Israel, 1,954 — or 64 percent — voted in favor of boycotting Israel, the voting committee announced Friday. When a remote University at the end of Ireland votes for BDS you can imagine how the other Europeans are feeling about Israeli Apartheid. Israel’s image is on a rapid downswing.