PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) has indeed learned the game. The master terrorist who arranged the funding for the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre is now a member of the suit-and-tie diplomatic community, realizing he can better advance his cause using the diplomatic weapon than he can with a gun in hand. Towards promoting his new image as a ‘moderate’, Abu Mazen has signaled a willingness to meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in New York City as he prepared to approach the United Nations with a bid for Palestinian independence. He told the media he will meet any leader at any time.
Abbas did stipulate such a meeting would have to be preceded by two conditions; (1) Israel halts all construction throughout Yehuda and Shomron and (2) negotiations resume from the point of agreement that Israel agrees to withdraw to the pre-June 1967 Six Day War boundaries.
Earlier on Monday, the PA leader met with United Nations Secretary General Bank ki-Moon, confirming his plan to move ahead with a request for membership in the international body, a move supported by Moon. Abba is aware the White House plans to use America’s veto power as a permanent member of the Security Council to block the PA move in that body, but he remains committed to the process, realizing at worst, the PA will achieve observer status in the international body. This will most certainly lead to the PA dispatching diplomats to the 160 or so countries that support the move, and as a result, it will gain its desired status.
While Israel has announced the unilateral move will destroy the ‘peace process’, the PA remains undeterred, well-aware the move will create facts on the ground and for all practical purposes, the PA will be viewed by much of the international community as the independent state of Palestine, increasing political pressure on Israel, which is already perceived by many nations as an “occupying force”.
Using his exceptional oratory skills, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has stated he feels the PA will come to its senses “when the smoke clears”, exhibiting a calm external gaze, but in reality, Israel is bracing for a harsh reaction which may be exhibited by wide unprecedented Arab violence.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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8 Responses
Remember the words of the Chafetz Chaim on the subject…
‘The holy Torah tells us regarding Ishmael that he is a ‘PEREH/adam,’ a wild beast of a man. It is known that our Torah is eternal, and if it says about Ishmael that he is a wild beast of a man, then Ishmael will remain forever a wild beast of a man.
Even if all of the cultured nations of the world will gather together and try to educate Ishmael and transform him into a cultured individual, so that he will no longer be a wild beast of a man, obviously this will be impossible in every fashion or form. They will not be able to do this through any means whatsoever, because he is not capable of being a cultured individual, for behold, the Torah testified regarding him that he is a wild beast of a man. This means that forever, for all eternity, Ishmael is, by definition, a wild beast of a man. Even if Ishmael will be involved in intellectual endeavor, like being a lawyer, or some similar
profession, then he will be a beastly lawyer. If he will
study diligently to be a professor, then he will be a beastly professor. This means that the bestiality of Ishmael will never cease.’
“Then the Chofetz Chaim let out a long, painful sigh and said, ‘Who knows what this wild beast of a man is capable of perpetrating against the Jewish people in the end of days?’
We have a pereh adam in the white house as well.
Hashem both gave us Eretz Yisroel, and took it from us as an onesh for our behavior. Just how do you on the right “know” that what Hashem wants from us now is the hardline position? You can’t possibly have an acceptable answer to that question, because no mortal really knows what Hashem wants.
Another question is why so many think that fundemental principles of negotiation do not apply to the issue of Shomron and Judea. “G-d is on our side” does not explain or “justify” some of the decisions to continue settlement expansion while the geographic issues are supposed to be on the table.
Whether we like it or not, the principles that govern any adversarial negotiation apply here…as they applied to Northern Ireland, Vietnam, the Basque region and even to collective bargaining. When negotiating over who gets the cake, one side cannot not unilaterally nibble at it from time-to-time without expecting a backlash.
I fear that the hardliners are helping to make a bad situation far worse, maybe even tragically worse…that the realities on the ground include that most of the world has been given every incentive to believe that negotiations with Israel are pointless…and that this undelies support for Abbas’ UN bid.
And spare your invectives…I know that the level of tolerance on YWN for views that diverge from the Likud/Chareidi line is just about zero. What a mess.
#3 – You wrote “..one side cannot not unilaterally nibble at it from time-to-time without expecting a backlash.”
One side? Unilaterally? Come on! YOU are being disingenuous and unfair. The PA has bitten chunks out of the Oslo agreement and spit them out in our face.
Where is the formal recognition of Israel and its right to exist?
Where is the commitment to halt terror attacks and to disassociate with terror organizations like Hamas?
What happened to the agreement, signed in Oslo, to NOT seek independence in the UN???
And where is all the money???
If they would have invested the many hundreds of millions of dollars that they received since Oslo in their infrastructure, economic development, and education (i.e. if they invested in their own people), then they would have proven to the world that they are certainly ready to sustain themselves as a full fledged geopolitical entity.
But they have NOT done this. In fact, the PA was so corrupt, and ignored the real needs of its people for so long, that many Palestinians came to view Hamas as the only organization that actually cared about them. Hamas provided the people with basic necessities – food, medicine, schools – while the PA spent millions on politics, task forces, and committees.
What exactly have they done in almost twenty years to prove to the world that they can succeed? As a sovereign entity, would they be comfortable continuing to be dependent upon Israel for food, medicine, water, gas, electricity, and jobs??? It’s absolutely INSANE!!!
How about this – let the PA become an honorary member of the EU – if they can pass muster there, we’ll talk.
Number 3 give them more to get nothing is simple stupidity
YITZCHOKY…my concern does not advocate
giving “them” anything…it advocates maintaining a status quo on settlement activity, without “natural growth” rationales for expanding them.
VADIM (Dima?) The below link is to an Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs posting of the 1993 “Declaration of Principles” (The Oslo Accords)…though many of us think it should have contained such a provision, it nowhere calls for any “recognition” of Israel. And neither do UN Resolutions 242 and 338, cited in the 1993 Principles.
Every Yid should read the “Principles” and know them…so that we don’t run around furthering misconceptions.
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace%20Process/Guide%20to%20the%20Peace%20Process/Declaration%20of%20Principles
I have no doubt as to the insidious intentions of many Arabs, that they want all of Israel…but Israel itself gets in the way of being able to expose the rashoim for what they are. Be it anti-Semitism, a “white man’s double standard” that holds Israel to a higher level of conduct, or both…Israel’s conduct under the current government makes it too easy for reasonable, if disinterested people to focus on Israeli intransigence and “bad faith” in negations.
Corrected final clause:
“…if disinterested people to focus on Israeli intransigence and “bad faith” in negotiations.”
YonasonW…
“Natural growth” is not a “rationale”, it is a fact.
Assuming you are married with children (or if you are not, you certainly know people who are) could your present family (with a wife and several kids) fit in the same one bedroom apartment you had when you first got married? NO??? Are you sure you are not rationalizing?
OR… If you are older and have married kids who would like to live in the same area with you, and they can afford to build a house down the block from you, would you be OK with Bloomberg (or whoever is your local mayor) telling you “Sorry, Jews can’t build here! We don’t want to offend the moslem population in Brooklyn by expanding Jewish ‘settlement’ in Brooklyn!”??? In America, this would be totally unacceptible, but in Eretz Yisrael it’s OK?!?!?