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Palestinian Policy Will Not Change

(Gatestone Institute) Bassam Tawil - U.S. envoys who met this week in Ramallah with PA officials to discuss reviving the peace process discovered what previous U.S. Middle East envoys learned in the past two decades - that the PA has not, cannot, and will not change. During their meeting in Ramallah with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, the U.S. emissaries were told that the Palestinians will not accept anything less than an independent state along the pre-1967 lines with east Jerusalem as its capital. Abbas also made it clear that he has no intention to make concessions on the "right of return" for Palestinian "refugees" - which would flood Israel with millions of Palestinian "refugees" and turn it into another Palestinian state. Abbas reiterated his demand that Israel release all Palestinian prisoners, including convicted murderers with Jewish blood on their hands. Abbas' position reflects accurately the policy of the PA leadership over the past two decades - a policy that has been regularly relayed to all previous U.S. administrations and successive Israeli governments. Moreover, Abbas knows that any move toward peace with Israel would end his career, and very possibly his life. Abbas does not wish to go down in Palestinian history as the leader who "sold out to the Jews." Abbas also cannot halt anti-Israel incitement, he cannot stop payments to convicted murderers and their families, and he cannot accept Jewish sovereignty over the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
2017-06-23 00:00:00
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