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Australia Takes Step Backwards on Middle East Peace
(American Enterprise Institute) Michael Rubin - On Aug. 8, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced that the Australian government would henceforth classify the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem as "Occupied Palestinian Territories" and would further declare all settlements as "illegal under international law and a significant obstacle to peace." In doing so, Australia sets the clock back on peace, misstates international law, fans the flames of terrorism, and aligns Australia with the rejectionist bloc's anti-Israel mob mentality. In 2000, Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat walked away from a deal his own negotiators had hashed out, without any counter offer. In 2008, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas more than 100% of the land area Palestinians declare occupied. Abbas rejected the deal. The Palestinian leadership cannot accept any peace that recognizes Israel as a Jewish state. The basis of the peace process - and the Oslo Accords - is peaceful negotiation of the land dispute. To make an end run around negotiations encourages recalcitrance, not peace.