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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/world/middleeast/28mideast.html
Abbas Rejects Calling Israel a Jewish State
[New York Times] Isabel Kershner - PA leader Mahmoud Abbas on Monday dismissed a demand by Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Palestinian negotiators have long refused to recognize Israel's Jewish character. In an attempt to bolster the Palestinian argument, Saeb Erekat, a senior Abbas aide and veteran negotiator, on Monday produced a copy of a letter signed by President Harry S Truman on May 14, 1948. In its original form, it recognizes the provisional government of the new Jewish state, but the typed words "Jewish state" in the second paragraph have been crossed out and replaced with the handwritten "State of Israel." Shlomo Avineri, a professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said Erekat was misinterpreting the American president's intention. The Truman letter had been prepared hours before Israel declared its independence, before the new country had chosen its name. It was later corrected by a Truman adviser, Clark M. Clifford, after the declaration of independence in order to call the country by its name, not to deny its Jewish character.