Salam Fayad, PA prime minister and RiceAccept Israel as the Jewish State? -Daniel Pipes
Surprisingly, something useful has emerged from the misconceived Annapolis meeting. Breaking with his predecessors, Olmert has boldly demanded that his Palestinian bargaining partners accept Israel's permanent existence as a Jewish state, thereby evoking a revealing response.
The Palestinian leadership responded quickly and unequivocally to Olmert's demand:
Salam Fayad, Palestinian Authority "prime minister": "Israel can define itself as it likes, but the Palestinians will not recognize it as a Jewish state."
Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization's executive committee: "This issue is not on the table..."
Ahmad Qurei, chief Palestinian negotiator: "This [demand] is absolutely refused."
Saeb Erekat, head of the PLO Negotiations Department: "The Palestinians will never acknowledge Israel's Jewish identity."
Arab recognition of Israel's Jewish nature must have top diplomatic priority.
[Jerusalem Post]
5 comments:
While this is not surprising, nor are the updates from the posting below that show the pointlessness of this summit as well as Arab rejection of all things dealing with Israel on its own terms, I am not sure this was the demand to focus on. I would focus on the right to exist and a guarantee against violence. The Palestinians want a homeland, I have not heard a demand that it be termed a Muslim Homeland. I think if Israel could get its right to exist acknowledged by all Arabs (which if impossible, makes this pointless summit---well, pointless), it need not be termed a Jewish state anymore than other countries need to be identified by their majority religion. Not to say that some Muslim lands choose to be identified this way, but as was pointed out, they can choose to identify themselves anyway they like, but no one else has to oblige them.
May i respectfully disagree with one of your premises: the Palestinians want a homeland.
i no longer believe that. Palestinian/Arab behavior [since the 1920's] is best explained by the thesis of Arab Rejectionism: the notion that the Arab-Palestinians have no real identity as a people, but rather have adopted an identity based on their shared agenda to eliminate Israel. Their peoplehood appears to have developed after 1948/9. They didn't even have a name for themselves as a people.
A colleague of mine once pointed out that the Palestinians are the only people who can not pronouce their own name [the Arabic language has no 'P' sound...they say "falistinians."
You make an interesting point. I don't know enough about it to be sure, but there are a lot of arguments that can certainly be made that if the Palestinians really wanted a homeland, the opportunity has existed, certainly since the 1990's and they could have had one if that really was the priority and worth something to them. They may, indeed, just be another tool in the Arab worlds armament against Israel. All the more reason to work against filling OPEC's coffers with still more and ever increasing petro-dollars.
Yes, indeed you see the logic in the thesis. As a result of our electronic conversation, i was able to locate a reference to two old quotes, one from Arafat another from Zahir Muhse’in:
---news clip below---
[I]n a public interview with Zahir Muhse’in, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, in a March 31, 1977 interview with the Amsterdam-based newspaper Trouw [said]:
"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism. For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."
Arafat himself said the same thing, on many occasions, and asserts often in his authorized biography (Alan Hart, Arafat: Terrorist or Peace Maker): "[T]he Palestinian people have no national identity. I, Yasser Arafat, man of destiny, will give them that identity through conflict with Israel."
---end of news clip---
The above quotes were pulled from a fabulous piece by British author Melanie Phillips in The Spectator called "Peace in our Tomb." The link is:
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/374436/peace-in-our-tomb.thtml
Best,
Bruce
These are very enlightening quotes, if accurate, and i do not doubt the source, I have just not gotten around to researching them myself. Nevertheless, we are surrounded by evidence everyday that there is much more to this situation, than we are led to believe. Sadly, the Bush administration is first in line to believe the superficial misresentations.
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