Major Problems With the Statement of Palestinian President Abbas

President Donald Trump last week met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. What Abbas said reveals just how deep the gulf remains between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Immediately after his opening greetings, Abbas had this to say: "Mr. President, our strategic choice is to bring about peace based on the vision of the two states - a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem that lives in peace and stability with the state of Israel based on the borders of 1967." Talk about a slap in the face. First, Israel's 1967 borders are indefensible, as was reiterated in 2011 after President Obama seemed to advocate a return to those borders. To give one example of indefensible borders, the Netanya area of Israel would be less than 10 miles wide. Second, dividing Jerusalem will not lead to lasting peace, and it is only the Jewish people, not the Palestinians, who have a true historic claim to the city as their capital. As PM Netanyahu has said, "The idea of a divided, split, wounded city is one we will never return to."

President Abbas then emphasized the desire of his people to have a two-state solution, expressing real hope that President Trump would help broker a lasting peace agreement. "Mr. President, it's about time for Israel to end its occupation of our people and of our land after 50 years. We are aspiring and want to achieve our freedom and our right to self-determination. And we also want for Israel to recognize the Palestinian state just as the Palestinian people recognize the state of Israel." This paragraph is also fraught with problems: First, the reason for the so-called occupation is: 1. the refusal of Arab leadership to agree to previous two-state offers, first in 1937 and then in 1947; 2. the attempted Arab destruction of Israel in 1967, which Israel preempted with the Six Day War, expanding its borders in the process and 3. ongoing Arab and Palestinian attacks on the Jewish people, because of which Israel has maintained control in Judea and Samaria. To lay the blame on Israel is to have the situation backward. Second, it is misleading to speak of Palestinian recognition of Israel. Has President Abbas, in Arabic, recognized Israel as a Jewish state? And if not, what does this imply? And what about a report from early this year stating that PA textbooks "ignore the existence of Israel"?

But the worst of President Abbas' remarks was still to come. He said, "Mr. President, I affirm to you that we are raising our youth, our children, our grandchildren on a culture of peace." A culture of peace? By naming schools after Palestinian terrorists? By celebrating them as martyrs and making them heroes for the children to emulate? By spreading false information about Israel and the Temple Mount that so provoked Palestinian young people that teens as young as 13 engaged in acts of terror? (Charisma) “Not a word from their mouth can be trusted; their heart is filled with malice. Their throat is an open grave; with their tongues they tell lies,” Ps. 5:30 (J. Post)

This article is copied from JNN NEWS, P.O. Box 7411, Jerusalem 91073, Israel and published with permission.