Abbas: Give Us Everything We Want or The Talks Are Off

It is incredible what political simpletons Jews are. They shut their eyes to one of the most elementary rules of life, that you must not "meet halfway" those who do not want to meet you.

--Ze'ev Jabotinsky, The Iron Wall November 4, 1923

This should put a damper on the mid-east optimism felt by some earlier this week.  Palestinian President and "Moderate Terrorist, Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday that there will be no compromises. Israel future borders must be the 1948 armistice lines, Jerusalem must be divided (the Temple mount in Palestinian Arab hands), Palestinian Arabs must be allowed to flood, Israel so the country will  no longer be a Jewish State, but no Jews can remain in their territory and there will be no recognition of Israel as a Jewish State.  In other words, his pre-condition is that Israel must agree to give the Palestinians everything they want.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday that he would not concede to Israel over any of the core issues he has been demanding. The Palestinian leader told Al-Quds al-Araby newspaper that if forced to give in on the issues of refugees or borders, he would "pack his bags and leave".

Abbas also vowed to cut off direct negotiations with Israel if construction were to resume in West Bank settlements and said he would refuse to bring to the table with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. "Israel can call itself what it likes," Abbas told the East Jerusalem-based newspaper.

Abbas, on a tour of North African Arab countries to brief their leaders on the Washington talks, was quoted by other media on Monday as saying that the renewed peace talks would begin with discussion on the issue of borders and security, before moving on to other topics.

"If we want to start negotiations, then we will start with borders and then move to security because borders is important for us and security is important for them [Israel]," the Ramallah-based al-Ayyam daily on Monday cited Abbas as saying from Tripoli, Libya.

Abbas says once Israel agrees to the pre-June 1967 borders everything will fall into place:

Abbas added that "if we agree on it [border] and demarcate it, then this means we have found a solution for Jerusalem, water and settlements and all that will be left are issues such as refugees and others, which we will discuss in the second stage."

He said that once a treaty is reached, Palestinians would not "accept any Israeli presence, whether civilian or military, on the Palestinian territories."

In other words Palestinian Arabs will be able to move into Israel, but Jews will not be welcome in Palestine.

Why does Abbas seem to be sabotaging the talks before they get going? Peace is bad for business.  Hatred of Jews and Israel is one of the ways Abbas and his Fatah terrorists stay in power.  The latest Fatah Party convention, held last year is just one example of the lack of moderation of Abbas and his "moderate" party.

Opening the conference, former PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei (Abu Alaa), whom an online BBC profile describes as "a moderate and a pragmatist,"warmly hailed the Fatah terrorists who perpetrated the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre which killed 38 civilians (including 13 children and an American photographer) and wounded 71. Dalal Al-Mughrabi, the female leader of the attack — who was shot dead by Israeli soldiers after murdering civilians on and near the Tel Aviv beach, then hijacking a bus of vacationers — was applauded as a heroic martyr and role model, while surviving terrorist Khaled Abu Isba (released in a prisoner exchange deal) was warmly welcomed as an honored guest. (A video of this introduction, uploaded and translated by Palestinian Media Watch—palwatch.org—can be seen below.)

Abbas and his Fatah have been enriching themselves on foreign aid. Peace would stop that gravy train.

By refusing to negotiate, Abbas gets to destroy any chance of peace, and he knows that it will be Israel that will be seen as the bad guys.  Israel is being set up--again.