End the "Peace Process" and Move On

JINSA
Report #: 1,045
10 December '10

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is moving away from the principle of a negotiated settlement with Israel under the auspices of the United States because it seems to have concluded that the United States is unable to force or bribe Israel into abandoning its fundamental principles, that:

a) The State of Israel is a legitimate, permanent expression of the sovereignty of the Jewish people in its historic homeland.

b) The 1949 Armistice Lines are not borders. Borders have to be established through negotiation and the permanent borders of Israel may include land to the east of the line.

c) Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people and has never been the capital of any other.

In this, the Palestinians have taken a step toward reality. Now the Administration has to understand that Abu Mazen and the Palestinian Authority cannot survive if they abandon Yasser Arafat's fundamental demands:

a) An independent Palestine with undetermined borders and without acknowledging the legitimacy of Jewish sovereignty in any part of the land and without an end to the state of war.

b) A capital in Jerusalem without acknowledging Jewish rights or history in the city.

c) The right of Palestinians who claim to have come from pre-1967 Israel and their descendants to take up residency within pre-1967 Israel.

The goals have always been entirely incompatible and one can hope the Administration is ready to admit it and move on. The road thus far has been ugly.

After excoriating Israel for offering provisional administrative approval for the building of apartments in the old "No Man's Land" that separated the eastern and western sectors of Jerusalem from 1949-1967, the Administration extracted a 9-month promise from Israel not to build houses for Jews east of the Armistice Line. The Administration failed to bring the Palestinians into serious talks.

(Read full report "End the "Peace Process" and Move On")

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