As I reviewed the positions on both sides of the conflict, one can’t even begin to fathom how Netanyahu and Abbas will ever come to a peace agreement.
Today, I want to cover one major point of contention in the negotiations: the legitimacy of a homeland for the Jews.
As Netanyahu stated in his speech last Thursday, he wants “legitimacy” of a “Jewish” state of Israel.
Last Friday, I wrote on Worthy News:
Abbas continued by stating that the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) had already recognized Israel in 1993. He pointed to a “document of mutual recognition” signed by late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and former PLO leader Yasser Arafat.
“And in this document, we give enough so – to show that our intentions are good, our intentions with respect to recognizing the state of Israel,” he added.
However, the previous night PLO Executive Committee member Wassel Abu Yousef told reporters in Ramallah that the “Palestinians reject the demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.”
Last year in Bethlehem, Abbas’ Fatah faction of the PLO adopted a platform rejecting the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.
The media totally MISSED this key point! Why don’t the Palestinians want to recognize Israel as a “Jewish” State? Because the PLO says it will never accept anything less than the “right of return” for refugees within the state of Israel.
Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, and a return of refugees would destroy the “Jewish” homeland from within. The “refugees” alongside the one million non-Jews that reside in Israel would quickly match the Jewish majority within the democratic state and within one election cycle — the homeland for the Jews would be lost.
So will the United States strong arm Israel into accepting anything less than recognition of a “Jewish” State of Israel?
Abbas: No ‘historic compromise’ on Jerusalem, borders
In ‘Al-Quds’ interview, PA president says Palestinians won’t recognize Israel as Jewish state, accuses PM of trying to “strip” Israeli-Arabs’ rights.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s talk about an “historic compromise” and said there would be no compromises on core issues such as Jerusalem and borders.
Abbas also reiterated his rejection of Netanyahu’s demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. “We’re not talking about a Jewish state and we won’t talk about one,” Abbas said in an interview with the semi-official Al-Quds newspaper. “For us, there is the state of Israel and we won’t recognize Israel as a Jewish state.”
http://www.worthynews.com/top/jpost-com-LandedPages-PrintArticle-aspx-id-187417/
PM demands Palestinians recognize Israel as Jewish state
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday said that a peace agreement is based, first of all, on the recognition of Israel as the national state of the Jewish People.
“The conflict between us and the Palestinians, as opposed to other conflicts that were resolved by peace agreements, is over the same piece of ground,” Netanyahu continued.
The prime minister stated that “we say that the solution is two states for two peoples, meaning two national states, a Jewish national state and a Palestinian national state. To my regret, I have yet to hear from the Palestinians the phrase ‘two states for two peoples’. I hear them saying ‘two states’ but I do not hear them recognizing two states for two peoples.”
http://www.worthynews.com/top/jpost-com-LandedPages-PrintArticle-aspx-id-187821/
Here is a legitimate dilemna for anyone willing to consider the matter objectively: A Jewish state where Jews have particular privileges and even rights that other races and religions within that state do not have and where Jews regularly abuse Christians and use their rights to outlaw free discussion of Christianity is Apartheid. How is Jewish Apartheid any better than South African Apartheid where one race has exclusive rights over all others? It seems to result in the same oppression of the minority. In this case, it is the Christian minority that is oppressed and discriminated against. Even Jews who have participated in Christian missionary work are denied entry into the state.