The PA’s Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein a-Sheikh was officially appointed as the Secretary of the Executive Committee in the PLO. This appointment filled the void created when Sa’eb Erekat (who died from Covid complications a year and a half ago), and this officially establishes a-Sheikh as the designated successor of Mahmood Abbas, the 87-year-old President of the Palestinian Authority.
mahmoud abbas
Is Peace Possible? Part 1: Legitimacy of a Jewish State
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?