Wednesday, June 03, 2009

OBAMA AND THE INADEQUATE MAHMOUD ABBAS

Marty Peretz blogs in the New Republic about the issues raised in the recent visit by Mahmoud Abbas and notes the inadequacy of Abbas in tackling the situation at hand of making peace with the Israelis and the muddling by US policy makers over the issues of settlements and the two-state solution. The latter is of course, a non-issue from the Israeli side because for years Israeli governments have agreed to the formulation."

The question is what kind of two-state solution which has hardly been confronted and never agreed upon..." We already know that Abbas has spurned the idea that one of the states should be a Jewish State in accordance with United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 of November 29, 1947 upon which the peace negotiations are based. The Resolution called for the creation of two independent states - one Arab and the other Jewish. The Palestinians repudiate the idea that Israel should be a Jewish State, yet have their own designs and different principles that would apply their proposed State.

"Yes, there are Jewish settlements and other Jewish settlements. Maybe some of the other ones will remain just where they are and under Palestinian sovereignty. As there are many Arab towns and cities in Israel. Why is it ordained that no Israelis can live in Palestine and that 1.5 million Palestinian Arabs can live in Israel."

Can you imagine someone suggesting that only white Anglo Saxons should be citizens of Australia?

I don't think that local commentators have come to grips with implications of the current Palestinian polity.

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