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Why Abbas Won't Accept Netanyahu's Offer to Address the Israeli People at the Knesset

(Commentary) Jonathan S. Tobin - During his address to the UN General Assembly on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked PA President Mahmoud Abbas to come to Jerusalem to address the Israeli people at the Knesset. The spectacle of Abbas at the Knesset would undermine the arguments of the majority of Israelis who agree with the prime minister that the Palestinians don't want peace. It would signal that the century-long Palestinian war on Zionism is over. But Abbas won't do that because that isn't what he is after. As his own speech illustrated, Abbas' view of the conflict is still fatally mired in a miasma of historical grievances and religious hate. He recycled the lies he and his official media have been circulating about Israel's intentions to harm the Temple Mount mosques that have served as the principle source of incitement to terrorism during the current "stabbing intifada." The entire focus of his current campaign at the UN is to abandon the bilateral negotiations to which the Oslo Accords committed the PA. Abbas at the Knesset won't happen because the political culture of the Palestinians is still rooted in rejection.
2016-09-23 00:00:00
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