Last week, I pointed out a quote by a Hamas legislator that pretty much proves they will never give up on their intent to destroy Israel:
“We are in favor of any steps towards establishing a Palestinian state in the borders of 1967,” says Mr. Bardawil. “When Israel stops its dream of a state from the Nile to the Euphrates, we will stop our dream of Haifa and Yaffa and Acco,” cities along Israel’s coast which had large Arab populations before 1948, and still have sizable Arab minorities. “Give us the land of 1967 and less us dream for the next 100 years.”
(Replace “less” with “let” and that last quote makes sense.)
Now we have Mahmoud Abbas issuing an ultimatum to Hamas: They have 10 days to approve the “prisoner’s plan,” which is essentially the return to the 1949 Armistice lines (a.k.a. “1967 borders”). Failing approval in ten days, Abbas will call for a referendum and see what the people have to say. It’s being called a “bold move” and oohed and aahed by various members of the media.
But something Abbas said struck a chord.
Abbas told a conference of Palestinian leaders Thursday that a national consensus exists on the borders of a future Palestinian state.
“All the Palestinians, from Hamas to the Communists, all of us agree we want a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders,” he said. “This is what we have, we cannot talk about dreams.”
It seems like Abbas is telling Hamas to give up its dream of a state “from the river to the sea,” but I’m not ready to believe that it isn’t also what he wants. He is a disciple of Arafat, after all, hand-picked by the corrupt Jew-hater to placate the West when it finally realized that Arafat was a waste of protoplasm.
I think Abbas’ statement makes perfect sense if you add the word “now” to the end of it.
I think he means that they need to give up the dream of achieving the destruction of Israel in 1 step, instead relying on a two-step solution which the world will accept.
On examination, the prisoners’ proposal makes demands on Israel (allow return of refugees, release political prisoners, end the “siege”) while conceding nothing, certainly not recognition of Israel, within the 1967 borders or otherwise. It calls for resistance against the post-1967 occupation, which contravenes the PLO’s many agreements to forswear violence in resolving its disputes with Israel.
The Arab position, under the prisoners’ platform no less than under Abdullah’s 2002 plan, is that the state of war persists until the Jews turn over the Temple Mount and the rest of the Old City, return to indefensible borders, and commit demographic suicide. It’s not peace for peace, or even land for peace. It’s Zionism for peace.
And the world hails this as evidence of moderation.