Palestinian leaders have rejected Benjamin Netanyahu’s terms for a two-state solution, claiming the Israeli prime minister’s speech on Sunday “sabotaged” the peace process.
They said that Mr Netanyahu had set impossible conditions for a Palestinian state and called on the international community to confront the Israeli premier, who endorsed the conditional creation of a Palestinian state for the first time, but refused to end Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank, where the Palestinians hope to build a future state.
Mr Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdainah, said: “Netanyahu’s remarks have sabotaged all initiatives, paralysed all efforts being made and challenges the Palestinian, Arab and American positions.”
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said the speech “closed the door to permanent status negotiations”.
He added: “We ask the world not to be fooled by his use of the term Palestinian state because he qualified it.
“He declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel, said refugees would not be negotiated and that settlements would remain.”
Yasser Abed Rabbo, an adviser to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, said: “The international community should confront this policy, through which Netanyahu wants to kill off any chance for peace.
“They must isolate and confront this policy which Mr Netanyahu is adopting and exert pressure on him so that he adheres to international legitimacy and the road map,” he added, referring to a US and European-supported 2003 peace plan.
The Palestinians are irate over Mr Netanyahu’s condition that they recognise Israel’s legitimate right to exist as a Jewish state, ensuring Palestinian refugees and their descendents who have lived outside of Israel’s borders since 1948 are not allowed to return.
[More]
Updates:
2:15 pm EDT, June 15th, 200 — Enraged Palestinians weigh return to terror for Netanyahu speech
Of course they did.
http://www.geocities.com/palestiniansarelies/BasicHistoryPalestinians.html
This would count as at least the third reasonable offer of a a two-state solution that the Palestinians have outright rejected in just the last decade without so much as a counter offer, so naturally the UN and other such lefties will continue to blame the Israelis.
Of course. The “United Nitwits” do that stuff all the time.
Sure, we’ll give you a state but you’re not allowed to defend it.
Name me one people who would accept this.
I watched the speech yesterday and Bibi gave them nothing. I wouldn’t either.
Personally, my goal would be to push them all back into Jordan or Egypt at the very first opportunity. They refuse to make peace…that’s fine.
Let’s make war and end it.
The problem is that about ten minutes after getting their own militarized state, the Palestinians would sign a treaty with Iran that would allow the latter to legitimately involve itself in any minor skirmish with Israel, so it makes complete sense that Israel would try open any talks from such a position. Unfortunately neither the UN or the Palestinians have ever quite understood the concept of a negotiated settlement.
Previous offers made by the Israelis since the late 90s have included the whole of Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, up to 97 percent of the West Bank, $35 billion for refugees and the right of return for thousands of Palestinians etc… All such offers have been rejected out of hand by the Palestinians with no reasonable counter offer ever made towards settling the matter, so I believe that Netanyahu fully expected this offer to be rejected as well but still wanted to remind the US about how Israel’s previous advances have not even been considered.
Exactly so, Brian. I have long believed that most palestinians agree with Israel but when you live in a facist state and your very life is at stake you remain silent and follow the party line.
A state ruled by armed thugs is no state at all and it is time for Israel to end the charade.
Trudeau figured that situation out long ago.
I watched the speech yesterday and Bibi gave them nothing. I wouldn’t either.
Then the US should give Bibi nothing. That $7 billion / year (to a supposed western democracy) should not come without some serious strings. Let them play Boer on their own dime.
Cynapse. Sure Bibi gave them nothing. Remember Ariel Sharon who completely pulled out of gaza, and left lots of infrastructure behind. In fact Bill Gates bought a large number of the greenhouses which at the time were producing valuable food crops and gave them to the Gaza Palestinians. Within days the greenhouses were razed, completely stripped. Some greenhouses were used to hide tunnels to export terror to Israel. The only thing Palestinians want is the Jews out of the middle east. They are completely possessed of that idea. If it ever came to pass the Palestinians wouldn’t know what to do with themselves, they would be totally lost.
So Cynapse, what should Bibi offer them. What would you offer a neighbour whose sole reason for existence is your destruction.
Remember, the Jews have a history in the middle east that goes back thousands of years. The Palestinians are a recent invention.
mid island mike
Palestinians = Arabs and are also thousands of years old … except they never left for another continent, took on an entirely different culture, and decided to return when things got inconvenient in the new land. This sort of “return home” has been tried before with the American slaves who, with the help of US president Colin Monroe, returned to Liberia. Of course, Liberia also failed because the slaves were culturally American by the time they returned (and they were only gone for a couple hundred years). In fact, what they did was turn the locals into indentured servants and live similar to their former British handlers. The long-term result has been a series of civil wars and bloody coups between the American dynasty and the indigenous Africans. Sometimes, you can’t just “return home”.
Right now Israel allows in any disgruntled Russian, South American, etc as though they know anything about Middle Eastern culture, so long as they claim to be Jewish. The resulting colonial-like relationship to the technologically backward locals is no surprise, and it will be shocking to see “sophisticated” Israel ever get along with its swarthy neighbours.