This week, in the wake of the "peace conference" at Annapolis, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. 60 years ago last week the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 181 ending the British mandate and specifically creating a Jewish state. Israel's purpose, it's raison d'être, was and is to provide a safe haven for the Jewish people. This, plus the fact that the Jewish people originally come from Israel, was the reason the international community created Israel in the first place. This took place in the wake of the Holocaust and growing persecution in the Arab world.
It's simple: if Abbas doesn't recognize Israel as a Jewish state that means he doesn't recognize Israel as defined and created by the U.N. It means he does not accept U.N. resolutions that are inconvenient for him. It means that he, like Hamas' leadership, wants Israel destroyed. Only his methods are different.
Why don't the U.S.,. the U.N., and the E.U. deal with Hamas? Why won't Israel negotiate with Hamas? Once again, it's simple: Hamas won't recognize Israel. Now it turns out Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas don't either, at least in any meaningful way. It seems to me there is no basis for negotiation. What applies to Hamas applies equally to Fatah. Look, I understand the hasbara (PR) value of Annapolis and going through the motions of a peace process. Having said that there are some principles that can't be bargained away. A nation's right to exist as constituted by it's people is one of them. Prime Minister Olmert should call off the next round of negotiations in Moscow until President Abbas recognizes Israel properly. Nothing less will do.
5 comments:
For what it's worth, should there be any other rounds of talks?
And, I wouldn't want to go to Moscow for them, given the political atmosphere of Putin's "dictatorship" proposal. His relationship with the oil rich countries doesn't bode well for Israel either.
If you can't recognize me as a Jewish state, but want me to recognize you as Islamic, then, we are not barganing on equal terms at all. Talks off. IMHO
Olmert is as much the problem as Abbas, Hamas, or Iran. Olmert doesn't recognize Israel's right to exist, so why should they?
Yehudi01: You've got to be kidding me. For all of Ehud Olmert's failings as Prime MInister the charge you make is so wild and ridiculous it's beyond belief.
Sorry, no, I don't believe that for one minute,
extremist!! shame on you all
How is it extreme to insist that a peace process includes a commitment from both sides to allow the other to live in peace? Israel has accepted a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel. The Palestinians still have not accepted a Jewish state. How is it extreme to insist that a peace process must be mutual?
I have nothing to be ashamed about. You are the one engaging in name calling without any basis in fact.
Post a Comment