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Land Without Peace: Why Abbas Went to the UN
(Washington Post) Charles Krauthammer - Last week PA President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated that he will continue to boycott peace talks unless Israel gives up - in advance - claim to any territory beyond the 1967 lines. Meaning, for example, that the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem is Palestinian territory. This is not just absurd. It violates every prior peace agreement. They all stipulate that such demands are to be the subject of negotiations, not their precondition. Abbas unwaveringly insists on the so-called "right of return," which would demographically destroy Israel by swamping it with millions of Arabs, thereby turning the world's only Jewish state into the world's 23rd Arab state. The Palestinians are quite prepared to sign interim agreements, like Oslo. Framework agreements, like Annapolis. Cease-fires, like the 1949 armistice. Anything but a final deal. Anything but a treaty that ends the conflict once and for all - while leaving a Jewish state still standing. For nearly half a century, the U.S. has pursued a Middle East settlement on the basis of the formula of land for peace, which produced the Israel-Egypt peace of 1979 and the Israel-Jordan peace of 1994. Why did Abbas go to the UN last week? To get land without peace. Statehood without negotiations. An independent Palestine in a continued state of war with Israel. Land without peace is nothing but an invitation to national suicide.