Former Kuwaiti Minister of Information Sami Al-Nesf warned in an interview translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) that it is extremists, and not moderates, who have harmed the cause of people in the Palestinian Authority.
“Jewish settlers are not going anywhere,” he said in a July 11th broadcast on Kuwait’s Diwam Al Mullah Internet TV, in a video clip downloaded and translated by MEMRI.
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1/5 Former Kuwaiti Minister of Information Sami Al-Nesf: The Extremists, Not the Moderates, Have Harmed the Palestinian Cause; Jewish Settlers Are Not Going Anywhere pic.twitter.com/qioXgmmGWx
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports)
“Not many people know that in 1938, the royal British Peel Commission concluded that there should be two states – a solution the loss of which people are mourning today,” Al-Nesf said. “The Peel Commission gave the Palestinians 90 percent of the land – 25,000 square kilometers – whereas the Jews were given a mini-state of 2,500 square kilometers in areas that have been Jewish throughout history, in and around Tel Aviv.
“The Jews said, ‘Any state is better than no state at all,'” he noted in the interview. “They said that accepting [the plan] was better than rejecting it, in the hope that the other side would reject it.”
“So the Jewish side accepted their 10 percent … While the Arabs refused …” the interviewer said.
“The loud and empty slogans by Mufti Amin Al-Husseini thwarted the two-state plan. Al-Husseini fled to Hitler, betting on the wrong horse,” Al-Nesf commented in response.
“In 1948, Mufti Al-Husseini [also] blew the Deir Yassin massacre out of proportion, urging the Palestinian Arabs to leave and insisting they be kept in refugee camps, Al-Nesf said.
“For your information, massacres occurred on both sides. He blew it out of proportion because of his theory that the Palestinian Arabs should leave to make it easier for the Arab armies to move in. In addition, he though that the Palestinians could be equipped with weapons abroad.
“Well, they left and never returned.
“What I’m trying to show is that historically speaking, the Palestinian cause has lost time and again because of the extremists, not because of the moderates. Because of the extremist loudmouths … Israel has never benefited from the moderates, but from people who scream: ‘The Deal of the Century? No to peace!’
“Another thing that I witnessed in person, unlike many others who talk about the Palestinian cause, is the changes on the ground.
“Today, when you go to Jerusalem and the West Bank, you see that they have changed entirely. The number of settlers has reached one million, and they will never leave.
“These are no longer prefabricated structures, like they were at the beginning. Now it is all concrete. No hill is left vacant. So unless we turn to the kind of reasonable thinking that we have lacked for a century, we will continue to accuse the voices of reason of being traitors, criminals, and collaborators, in order to walk in the path of extremism, which always ends in a catastrophe.”
“Al-Husseini’s greatest crime of all was his insistence on keeping the Palestinians in refugee camps. When the Kurds emigrated, they did not go to refugee camps.
“They were placed in refugee camps and to this day, they are paying the price.”
“That man with his extremism, harmed the Palestinian cause. He said, ‘In order to avoid the loss of the Palestinian cause, let’s keep the Palestinians in refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and everywhere.
“Hamas refuses to recognize Israel, but the Palestinians are totally dependent on Israel,” he said.
“I say to our Palestinian brothers: Is radical talk all you care about? Do you really want to lose your cause?
“Let me tell you what Mahmoud Abbas told me,” he said, and what I said to Kahled Meshaal in Damascus, and three times to Ismail Haniyeh, when we were having dinner in his Gaza home.
“Abbas said, ‘The cause is about to be lost. Let’s reach a solution with Israel, so we can at least keep what is left of the land.’
“Whenever the extremists cause war, more land is lost, and whenever peace is signed, the land is regained.
“The Sinai was not regained through war. It was lost twice in war, and was regained through peace.
“It was through peace that Jordan regained the land it lost in the 1967 war. Lands are regained through peace, not through war.
“[Hamas told Abbas] they want a unity government. ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘The difference between us is that you do not recognize Israel.’
“‘True,’ they said. ‘We want to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea.’
“He asked them, ‘With what weapons would you do that? Since we were deported from the 1967 lands because of Arab extremism – in Syria, Egypt, and elsewhere – we have become completely dependent upon Israel.
“He says, ‘If I gave ministerial positions to Hamas, where would a [Hamas] agriculture minister get water? The water comes from Israel. Let’s say that you are the finance minister. The currency in Gaza and the West Bank is the shekel. If you want money, you get it from Israel. The electricity in Gaza and the West Bank also comes from Israel. The petrol comes from Israel … Food, water, everything … ‘ ”
“In 1917, just as there were extremists, there were also wise, reasonable people,” he went on. “One of them was [Lebanese politician’ Shakib Arslan. He said, ‘When I visited the [Jewish] settlements, I realized that they were like an advanced locomotive, which could pull us out of our ignorance, poverty, and so on. Those people are Europeans, who came to cultivate the land of the settlements, he said. There were Palestinians who said the same thing.
“Some Palestinians said: [The Jews] ‘have been here since 1700-1800 and throughout history. The Israelites and the Land of Israel are mentioned in the Quran. Where was it? In Africa? No, it’s the same land.
“‘Let’s reach understandings,’ those people said.
“Extremists like Amin Al-Husseini, Arafat, Ahmad Shukeiri, and all the people who held the banner of extremism, have harmed the Palestinian cause and the cause of the Arabs.”