Another reason why the so called “moderate” Palestinians cannot be trusted, everyone of them, from Abbas to Ahmed Qurei, refuse to give up on continuing the conflict. A “Greater Palestine” is yet to be acheived. The snakes.
If even the so called “moderates” are refusing to give up on having a standing army, what chances are there for Israel to even condsider that the Palestinians are serious about peace with Israel, and that their army won’t eventually be used against the state of Israel?
The prospects for a breakthrough in the peace process in the near future have dwindled following reports that Israel will demand that the future Palestinian state be demilitarized, Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah said Thursday.
The officials also strongly condemned Israel’s security measures in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, saying the latest escalation posed an imminent threat to the PA’s efforts to consolidate its power in these areas. The PA leadership said it was very concerned by the fact that Israel was planning to demand that the IDF be able to operate inside a future Palestinian state to foil terrorist attacks or a military offensive from the east.
“The Palestinian Authority rejects talk about a demilitarized Palestinian state,” a senior PA official told The Jerusalem Post. “A Palestinian state that does not have a strong security force won’t be able to survive for one day. Every day Israel sends yet another message that it does not want peace with its neighbors.” Another official in Ramallah said Israel’s talk about a demilitarized Palestinian state and retaining control of Ma’aleh Adumim and other settlement blocs in the West Bank “proves that Israel is not working toward achieving a two-state solution.”
Israel, he added, wanted a Palestinian state only on parts of the West Bank where the IDF would continue to operate freely. “Our position remains unchanged,” the official said. “There will never be peace without a Palestinian state in the entire West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. We insist on a full withdrawal to the 1967 borders.” PA negotiator Yasser Abed Rabbo, who has been dispatched to Washington for talks with US officials ahead of President George W. Bush’s visit to the region next week, will express the PA’s deep concern over Israel’s latest security measures and position regarding the status of the future Palestinian state, the official told the Post.
According to the official, Abed Rabbo would demand that Bush call for an end to construction in all settlements, including in Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, during his visit to Israel and the PA territories. The PA also wants a clear statement from Bush that a Palestinian state would enjoy full sovereignty with a strong security force, the official said. Ahmed Qurei, head of the PA team negotiating with Israel, said the Palestinians considered all the settlements to be illegal. “The settlements are an act of aggression against the Palestinians,” he said. “We are opposed to all the settlements, including Ma’aleh Adumim. These settlements, as well as the occupation, must go.”
Buffoons and idiots and treacherous liars, all three properly describe the so called “moderate” Palestinian “leadership”. The settlements have never been the issue holding up peace, as the emptying of Gaza of Israeli settlers shows, it’s all about the rejection of a Jewish state in the heartland of Islam. It’s all about keeping the steady flow of low level terrorist violence directed against Israel until it’s demoralized into capitulating to more extreme demands by the Arabs. More here. *L* KGS
