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Palestinian Rejectionism Has Been Exposed
(U.S. News) Mortimer B. Zuckerman - We recently passed the deadline set by Secretary of State John Kerry for the nine months of make-or-break negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Kerry's was a valiant effort to put forth an outline of a two-state agreement after three sterile years. Scores of east-west journeys, 34 meetings with the PA's President Mahmoud Abbas and many more with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu produced only one affirmation: that the PA is not interested in a Palestinian state if it means recognizing the legitimacy of the State of Israel. Six days before the deadline, Abbas made a pact with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian terror groups based in Gaza. Jen Psaki, spokesperson for the State Department, put it clearly: "It is hard to see how Israel will negotiate with a government that does not recognize its right to exist." Secretary Kerry has now exposed Abbas' rejectionism. Ever since the founding of Israel, Palestinians have lived in the belief that one day all of Israel will be theirs. Bringing an end to the conflict requires that both sides recognize each other as equals. But the Palestinians have never acknowledged the validity of the Jewish narrative, as if the Jewish identity of Israel were not deeply embedded through thousands of years of the longing of patriarchs, prophets, dreamers and fighters.