Obama Admin Deals Demoralizing Blow to Palestinian Cause

Sunday, January 11, 2015 |  Israel Today Staff

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While staunchly backing the establishment of an independent Palestinian Arab state, the Obama Administration last week dealt a demoralizing blow to Palestinian efforts to achieve that goal unilaterally.

Shortly after losing a UN Security Council vote to recognize a Palestinian state and demand a full, unconditional Israeli withdrawal from said state, the Palestinian Authority threatened to become the newest member of the International Criminal Court, where it would no doubt file copious lawsuits against Israel and its leaders.

But US State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki reminded the Palestinian Authority that it isn’t a state, and therefore can’t join the ICC.

“The United States does not believe that the state of Palestine qualifies as a sovereign state and does not recognize it as such and does not believe that it is eligible to accede to the Rome Statute,” Psaki said at a Washington press conference.

She went on to warned that the US Congress would now deliberate on whether or not to halt $400 million in annual financial aid to the Palestinian Authority.

Former US Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross encouraged European powers to take a similar stand against ongoing Palestinian intransigence if they are serious about facilitating a genuine peace.

In a New York Times op-ed, Ross noted that the Palestinian Authority had rejected three separate peace deals - in 2000, 2008, and 2014 - and that the Palestinian leadership had unfortunately been conditioned to believe it could get everything for nothing.

“Palestinian political culture is rooted in a narrative of injustice; its anti-colonialist bent and its deep sense of grievance treats concessions to Israel as illegitimate. Compromise is portrayed as betrayal,” he explained. “If saying yes is costly and doing nothing isn’t, why should we expect the Palestinians to change course?”

Ross insisted that the Palestinians must start suffering consequences for so many failed peace efforts.

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US Backs Israel in Quitting Peace Talks (LFHP Editor's Note: GOOD FOR THE USA! Finally!)

US Backs Israel in Quitting Peace Talks

Thursday, April 24, 2014 |  Ryan Jones  ISRAEL TODAY

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The Obama Administration on Wednesday signaled its support for Israel’s decision to cancel further peace talks with the Palestinian Authority after the latter concluded a unity agreement with the Hamas terrorist organization.

“It’s hard to see how Israel can be expected to sit down and negotiate with a group that denies its right to exist,” US State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki said in reference to Hamas.

Israel has long insisted that it cannot make genuine peace with a Palestinian government that includes Hamas.

In 2006, the Palestinian public responded to Israel’s position on the matter by overwhelmingly voting Hamas into power in national legislative elections. An internal power struggle with its rival Fatah kept Hamas from exercising its full authority. But Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas (Fatah) this week demonstrated that he had no problem reconciling with Hamas, even if doing so put peace with Israel further out of reach.

The deal forged between Abbas and his Hamas rivals calls for the formation of a unity government in the next five weeks, and could see the Palestinian leader visit the Gaza Strip for the first time since it was seized by Hamas in a bloody coup in 2007.

“I said this morning that Abbas needs to choose between peace with Israel and an agreement with Hamas, a murderous terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and which both the United States and the European Union define as a terrorist organization,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement released to the press.

“This evening, as talks are still ongoing about extending the negotiations, Abbas has chosen Hamas and not peace,” he continued. “Whoever chooses Hamas does not want peace.”

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Israel’s chief negotiator in talks with the Palestinians, agreed: “The reconciliation agreement that Mahmoud Abbas signed with Hamas is a bad step, which not only caused the cancelation of [negotiations], but cast a heavy shadow on the possibility to progress.”

Livni added that Israel “has a duty, even when we want peace, not to stop seeing reality with eyes wide open: Hamas combines religious Muslim extremist ideology with terrorism and doesn’t recognize our right to exist.”

Finance Minister Yair Lapid said both the Fatah-Hamas unity agreement and Abbas’ recent decision to violate agreements with Israel by unilaterally seeking recognition for “Palestine” called into question whether or not the Palestinians really want a state of their own, or rather, a state alongside Israel.

“Hamas is not a government, it is a Jihadist terror organization that has inscribed on its flag the killing of civilians — women, children, old people — just because they are Jewish,” Lapid reminded a gathering of the European Jewish Congress in Tel Aviv.

At an emergency cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Thursday, Netanyahu was reportedly urged to go beyond simply canceling a few negotiating sessions, and to impose real sanctions on the Palestinian Authority.

Palestinian leaders, meanwhile, maintained that unity with Hamas should not preclude a negotiated settlement with Israel. Abbas was quoted as saying that bringing Hamas into the PLO (the parent organization of the Palestinian Authority) would somehow bolster the chances of a lasting peace.

PHOTO: Hamas and Fatah negotiators shake hands in Gaza

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Love For His People Editor's Note: 

GOOD FOR THE USA! 

Finally! Supporting Israel again!!!

Steve Martin