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Misreading Reality, Palestinians Overplayed Their Hand
(Israel Hayom) Oded Granot - The Palestinians are deep in denial about their part in the creation of the U.S. peace plan. Their grand expectation, built up over the decades, was that there would be an international plan that would force upon Israel a sovereign Palestinian state on all of the West Bank with a mass return of refugees that would shatter the foundations of the Zionist state. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a thorn in the side of most Arab states, which are dealing with extremely difficult issues of their own. Many of the leaders of the Sunni bloc believe that now that Israel has accepted the principle of two states, President Mahmoud Abbas must end his boycott and immediately reenter into discussions with the Americans. The U.S. put considerable effort into preparing the ground with the moderate Arab states ahead of the release of the plan. The Saudi Crown Prince tried to convince Abbas that it "would not be a disaster" if the Palestinian capital is in the Abu Dis neighborhood of Jerusalem. The writer headed the Middle East desk and was senior commentator at Israel Television - Channel 1 (2001-2017).