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Abbas Is Damaging the Peace Process by Denying Jewish History in Jerusalem

(Council on Foreign Relations) Elliott Abrams - Archaeologists keep finding more and more aspects of the Jewish past in Jerusalem in the biblical period. Like his predecessor Yasser Arafat, PA President Mahmoud Abbas is now denying any Jewish history in Jerusalem at all. I've known Abbas for 15 years and it is painful to see this man, generally viewed as a "moderate voice," descend to these depths. He has done it before, and then pulled back when called on it: see his speech to the European Parliament in 2016, when he said Israeli rabbis were calling for the poisoning of water wells in the West Bank and then issued a statement saying he'd been misinformed. Abbas is now presenting Jerusalem as a Christian/Muslim city whose only connection to the Jews is that they are lying about it and defiling it. It has never been clear to me what he expected to gain from such vile statements. If Abbas is the only, indeed best possible, Palestinian partner for peace and these are his views, what chance is there for a successful negotiation? The "peace process" is damaged not by decisions like the President's, which was so carefully worded and explained, but by the kind of language Abbas used. You cannot say those things and then hold yourself out as a leader committed to peace and harmonious coexistence. The writer, a senior fellow at the CFR, handled Middle East affairs at the U.S. National Security Council from 2001 to 2009.
2017-12-19 00:00:00
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