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Moving the Palestinian Leadership from Rejection to Recognition
(The Hill) Gregg Roman - In his Jan. 14 address to the PLO Central Council, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas did not once mention the issues of land, borders, settlements, or occupation - the issues that many in the West assume occupies the Palestinian leadership. His sole target was Zionism, which he called "a colonialist enterprise." In other words, Abbas does not consider the lack of a Palestinian state to be the problem, but the reality of a Jewish state. This conflict will end only with the end of Palestinian rejection of the idea of Jewish sovereignty in the Jewish People's indigenous and ancestral homeland. This has informed their consistent repudiation of the creation of a state of their own if it means sharing part of the land with a Jewish sovereign presence. Every negotiation towards peace has failed because Palestinian leaders refused recognition of Israel and clauses such as "end of claims" and "end of conflict." Both the 2000 "Clinton Parameters" and the 2007 Annapolis talks broke down because a Palestinian leader refused to end the conflict. In other words, the conflict will not end with the creation of a Palestinian state, or a removal of settlements and the presence of the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank. The Palestinians wish to pocket all of this and keep the conflict and their claims open, making all of Israel a future target. The writer is director of the Middle East Forum.