(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Ben Fishman and Mohammad Yaghi - Mahmoud Abbas' announcement of a national referendum was wrongly interpreted as a peace plan. The actual text of the document Abbas threatened to put to a popular vote much more closely resembles Hamas' own political program. There is no explicit statement that establishing a state within the pre-1967 borders would end Palestinian claims over Israeli territory. In fact, the document can be viewed as another iteration of the PLO's 1974 phased plan that declared a willingness to accept the establishment of a national authority in any part of historic Palestine as a step toward "completing the liberation of all Palestinian territory."
2006-05-30 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive