The Palestinian Authority and its superior PLO organization have totally dismissed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s overture to sit down and discuss new borders that would leave several settlement blocs under Israel sovereignty.
Haaretz headlined on Tuesday a report that Prime Minister Netanyahu told European Union foreign policy adviser Federica Mogherini last week that he wants to advance the idea of “two states for two peoples.” His suggestion theoretically would be a step towards the expulsion of more than 100,000 Jews in other areas of Judea and Samaria that would be part of a new Arab country.
The Jewish Press.com reported here on Tuesday that Netanyahu simply was leading Mogherini along her rosy path while knowing full well that the Palestinian Authority is not interested in resuming negotiations.
Lo and behold, the Ma’an News Agency, based in Bethlehem, published Wednesday morning an amazing statement by Palestinian Authority negotiator Saed Erekat, who said:
If Mr. Netanyahu wants to have meaningful negotiations ending the occupation that began in 1967, he should recognize a Palestinian State on the 1967 border and honor Israel’s obligations including a halt of settlement construction and the release of the Palestinian prisoners.
There never has been a clearer admission of the Palestinian Authority’s understanding of the word “negotiation,” which it defines as “give us everything we want and then we will talk about, hmmmm, uh, about expelling Israel from FIFA, assuming it survives charges of wholesale bribery.”
PLO official Hanan Ashrawi also condemned Netanyahu’s proposal, which she called a “disingenuous and manipulative exercise of political and legal deception.”
Several knee-jerk nationalists went bonkers over Netanyahu’s suggestion to Mogherini, reflecting a paranoia that ignores political and diplomatic realities of which the Prime Minister is well ware.
Virtually all of the Israeli media establishment, and foreign media are sure to follow, attacked Netanyahu from all sides this week of “dividing and conquering” the Foreign Ministry. However, it is clear Netanyahu wants to retain control because he knows best how to exploit the Palestinian Authority’s total rejection of the Oslo Accords and negotiations, as defined by Webster’s.