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Palestinian Red Lines Make Chances of U.S.-Mediated Settlement Slim

(Times of Israel) Avi Issacharoff - On Friday, Asharq Al-Awsat published an interview with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in which he claimed that Israel murdered Yasser Arafat and could do the same to Abbas. Erekat stressed that the Palestinians will not agree to have talks extended beyond the allotted nine months, set to end in April. Erekat revealed the contents of a letter Abbas sent to President Obama on Dec. 8: "Firstly, we will not be able to accept Israel as a Jewish state," Abbas wrote. "Secondly, we will not be able to accept a Palestinian state with 1967 borders without Jerusalem." "Thirdly, we will not be able to accept any Israeli on Palestinian land, sea, air and border crossings following the completion of the gradual withdrawal." A fourth precondition was the instatement of the "right of return" for potentially millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to Israel. Erekat's preferred strategy for achieving Palestinian statehood is appealing to the EU to recognize a Palestinian state while appealing to international bodies to sign treaties and protocols that would enable the Palestinian Authority to file a suit against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
2014-01-06 00:00:00
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