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Behind the PA's Hysterical Reaction to Netanyahu's Speech

[Jerusalem Post] Khaled Abu Toameh - The Palestinian Authority leadership's hysterical, hasty and clearly miscalculated response to Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech is likely to boomerang because it makes the Palestinians appear as "peace rejectionists." Even before he completed his speech, several PA officials and spokesmen used every available platform to declare their total rejection of Netanyahu's ideas. The harsh response of the PA is the direct result of high hopes that its leaders have pinned on the Obama administration. Reports about a looming crisis between the U.S. and Netanyahu, combined with Obama's conciliatory approach toward the Arab and Muslim worlds, had created the impression that the Israeli government had no choice but to accept all the Palestinian demands. The fact that Netanyahu is even prepared to talk about a Palestinian state is in itself a major achievement. So what if the future state of Palestine doesn't have an army and an air force? Why would Palestine need tanks and warplanes? Don't the Palestinians already have enough security forces and armed militias? Don't they already have enough ammunition and rockets?
2009-06-16 06:00:00
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