The liars within and without

Israel is simply surrounded by liars.

First, of course, there are the Palestinians, who lie just about every time they open their mouths.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Wednesday denied a Haaretz report that said the Palestinian Authority wants the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip to remain closed.

Erekat stated that the PA has requested the opening of the border on numerous occasions.

Haaretz reported on Tuesday that Palestinian sources said PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas asked Israel and Egypt to prevent the movement of people from Egypt to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing, after Hamas’ mid-June takeover of the coastal strip.

The sources said that Abbas said if the crossing is opened, Hamas will be able to let in thousands of people without supervision into Gaza – including activists who could strengthen the group, which rival Abbas’ Fatah movement.

Then there is Syria, which insists that those weapons are getting into Lebanon some other way than via Syrian trucks crossing the border at night:

The Syrian ambassador to the United Nations has submitted a letter to the UN secretary general saying that Israel is fabricating evidence against Syria’s supposed smuggling of weapons to Lebanon.

Bashar Ja’afari told Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that Syria protests the fact that the UN “adopted the fabricated claims that it received by Israeli intelligence sources.”

The letter also addresses a report submitted several weeks ago by Terje Roed-Larsen, the secretary general’s envoy to Lebanon and Syria, on the implementation of UN resolution 1559. The resolution requires the full withdrawal of Syrian troops and intelligence operatives from Lebanon.

Larsen wrote in the report that weapons are being smuggled to Lebanon through Syria. Though other UN reports have made the same claim – including a secretary general report and an independent investigation on the Syria-Lebanon border – Ja’afari demonstrated pointed contempt for Larsen’s report specifically.

Ja’afari requested that the information Israel passed on to the UN be discounted because it is “hostile” to Syria and occupies its land, he said. The fact that Israel has information on activities on the Syrian-Lebanese border, Ja’afari wrote, proves that Israel is violating UN resolution 1701, which ended last summer’s Second Lebanon War, by flying spy planes over Lebanese skies.

Shyeah. The Syrians pretend they want peace. But they don’t.

“Different parties have been used to send messages. This is not new. It has been going on for quite some time,” Regev said. The problem is not the lack of good people offering their good offices. The problem appears to be with the policy goals of the regime in Damascus.”

“While it is possible that they talk about peace, that’s all it is – talk. They are in fact playing the Israeli card cynically in attempts to solve their diplomatic problems with the countries of Europe and North America without any real intentions to change their relationship with Israel,” he said.

And Syria wants—as a precondition—the return of the Golan Heights.

He said several peace mediators had recently approached him to try to restart talks. “We told those delegations about our firm stance, the rejection of secret negotiations, because there is no need to hide anything from the people,” Assad said.

He added that Syria wanted written guarantees on the restitution of the Golan Heights, taken by Israel in the 1967 war, as a precondition to negotiations.

Sure. Because that’s how it happens. You lose territory in a war—territory from which you shelled civilians—continue to fund the enemies of the state that won the territory, constantly threaten that state, and then, in order to have peace with that state, you get the territory back.

Well, in the Dorktator’s fevered little fantasies, that’s how it happens. In reality, well, no. But the world will definitely blame Israel for not sitting down and making peace with Syria. That’s what happens when you tell a lie often enough. It becomes conventional wisdom, and accepted truth. Just ask the anti-Israel factions why the PLO came into being. They’ll tell you it was the occupation. If you tell them that it was founded in 1964, they won’t believe you.

And we come full circle. Lying. It’s the new truth.