Palestinians: Kerry Trying to Bribe Us to "Sell Out"

by Khaled Abu Toameh
May 28, 2013 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3734/palestinians-economic-aid-bribe

The Americans and Europeans are clearly not listening to what the Palestinians are telling them: that dollars and euros will not change the hearts and minds of the people. They will continue to stick to their demands,including the "right of return" for Palestinians refugees to their former homes and a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines. If Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accepts Kerry's economic plan and returns to peace talks with Israel, he will be accused of "selling out" to Israel and the U.S. in return for money.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is trying to bribe the Palestinians by offering them economic projects in return for political concessions, Palestinian Authority officials claim.

The claim was made in response to Kerry's plan for peace in the Middle East, which envisages a $4 billion investment in the Palestinian private sector.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum conference at the Dead Sea, Kerry said that an independent Palestinian economy is essential to achieving a sustainable peace.

But Kerry's plan to boost the Palestinian economy has hardly impressed the Palestinian Authority leadership.

The Palestinians say that Kerry and President Barack Obama have convinced themselves that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be solved through economic prosperity.

But Mohamed Mustafa, chairman of the PLO's Palestine Investment Fund, a body established in 2003 as an independent investment company to strengthen the Palestinian economy through strategic investments, said that Kerry was wrong to believe that the Palestinian Authority would make political concessions in return for money.

Mustafa said that any economic plan should be part of a political framework that would ensure a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines, including east Jerusalem, and guarantee the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees to their former homes inside Israel.

Palestinian Authority officials say that Kerry has been focusing on boosting the Palestinian economy, but that he still has not come forward with a new initiative to revive the peace talks with Israel. "There is no such thing as economic peace," Saeb Erekat, another leading official, explained. "The political and economic factors are intertwined and go together."

Hamas has also rejected Kerry's economic plan to help the Palestinian economy. Hams has dubbed it a deception on the part of the US Administration.

This is not the first time that the Americans or the Europeans try playing the economic card in an effort to get the Palestinians to make concessions to Israel. Billions of dollars that were given to the Palestinians over the past two decades have not had a moderating effect on any Palestinian.

The Americans and Europeans are clearly not listening to what the Palestinians are telling them: that dollars and euros will not change the hearts and minds of the people.

This does not mean, of course, that the Palestinians will refuse what they are being offered. They will take the money, but at the end of the day, they will continue to stick to their demands, including the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees and a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines.

In wake of the Palestinian reactions to Kerry's "bribes," it is hard to see how Palestinian Authority leader will be able to return to the negotiating table with Israel. If Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accepts Kerry's economic plan and resumes peace talks with Israel, he will be accused of "selling out" to Israel and the U.S. in return for money.

Kerry's talk about boosting the Palestinian economy has only complicated his mission of seeking to bring Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table. It would be better if the Americans and Europeans started listening to what the Palestinians are telling them out loud and in public.

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Related Topics: Palestinian Authority

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Comment on this item

5 Reader Comments

Sabasarge • May 29, 2013 at 09:01

"It would be better if the Americans and Europeans started listening to what the Palestinians are telling them out loud and in public."

Why start now? Had anybody been truly listening for the last 30 years (at least), they would have ceased this phony "peace process" nonsense long ago.

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ESLombard • May 29, 2013 at 03:48

We Americans can be so astoundingly provincial, imagining always that others think just as we do. It may have been at root in so many of the wars we have been engaged in. As I recall, perhaps imperfectly, after the Arab defeat in 1948, Israel set up offices abroad where a Palestinian Arab with property in Israel could go and receive payment for his property and emigrate abroad directly. It was understood that were he to return to Israel, his Arab neighbors would seek his death. Arab collective honor cannot accept "a bribe," but handled as a private matter and not subject to death threats, responses might be different.

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Clive • May 28, 2013 at 23:04

Is it really only a minority of Muslims who think of jihad, or only a few that actually put it into practice for now? 'Muslims are the victims in Israel, Afghanistan, and Iraq;' that is how they portray themselves, as the poor victims, downtrodden.

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Gerry Gagnon • May 28, 2013 at 14:53

Yes, it would be better if Europe and the U.S. just listened, and then stopped pretending there is any rationality to the "Palestinian movement." There is no "Palestinian people;" it has just become an all-purpose excuse for Muslim hatred of Jews. There never has been an intent to seriously negotiate with Israel -- nor could one be expected from a people who believe it's OK to lie to further one's cause. European and U.S, leaders demonstrate the naivete of an adolescent when they appease the Arabs by arguing that there is any purpose to negotiations, other than to give the Arab Muslims a chance to get stronger. It's time again for Israel to act with the courage of 1967, and push back the prehistoric cultures that surround it and wish to overwhelm the only progressive nation in the Middle East. A 'liberal' approach only guarantees a slow death:

Behind the Mask of 'Negotiation': These quotes cover a 60-year period and include religious and political leaders from virtually every Arab Muslim country in the Middle East. If you were told that you had to sit down and negotiate the future of Israel with these people, what would you do?
**************************************
"Palestine is Arab Islamic land, from the river to the sea, including Jerusalem.
There is no room in it for the Jews."
---Hamas,
from Israel National News, Nov. 30, 2007
**************************************
"If the Jewish state becomes a fact, and this is realized by the Arab peoples, they will drive the Jews who live in their midst into the sea… Even if we are beaten now in Palestine, we will never submit. We will never accept the Jewish state..."
---Hassan al-Banna, Muslim Brotherhood founder
(New York Times, August 2, 1948)
**************************************
"In demanding the return of the Palestinian refugees, the Arabs mean their return as masters, not slaves, or to put it more clearly -- the intention is the extermination of Israel."
---Salah al-Din, Egyptian Foreign Minister
(Al-Misri, Egypt, October 11, 1949; quoted in Harris O. Schoenberg, 'A Mandate for Terror: The United Nations and the PLO' [Shapolsky Books, 1989], p239)
***************************************
"Israel, to the Arab world, is like a cancer to the human body, and the only way of remedy is to uproot it just like a cancer… Had we united then [in 1948], Israel would not have come into existence. Israel is a serious wound in the Arab world body, and we cannot endure the pain of this wound forever. We don't have the patience to see Israel remain occupying part of Palestine for long… We Arabs total about 50,000,000. Why don't we sacrifice 10,000,000 of our number to live in pride and self-respect?"
---King Saud of Saudi Arabia
(New York Times, January 10, 1954)
***************************************
"We will make it a decisive battle and get rid of Israel once and for all… This is the dream of every Arab."
- Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of Egypt
(Washington Post, July 27, 1959)
***************************************
"If the refugees return to Israel – Israel will cease to exist."
---Gamal Abdel Nasser
(Zuercher Woche, West Germany, September 1, 1961; quoted in Harris O. Schoenberg, 'A Mandate for Terror: The United Nations and the PLO' [Shapolsky Books, 1989], p239)
***************************************

"Allah's promise and the Prophet's prophecy of our victory in Palestine over the Jews and over the oppressive Zionists has begun to come true... Before Israel dies, it must be humiliated and degraded. Allah willing, before they die, they will experience humiliation and degradation every day... Allah willing, we will make them lose their eyesight, we will make them lose their brains."
---Khaled Mashal, Hamas leader
(Al-Jazeera TV, February 3, 2006)
*****************************************
"Oh Allah, vanquish the Jews and their supporters. Oh Allah, vanquish the Americans and their supporters. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them all, down to the very last one."
---Ahmad Bahr, Palestinian Legislative Council acting speaker
(Sudan TV, April 13, 2007)
*****************************************
"By Allah, we will not be satisfied even if all the Jews are killed."
---Dr. Walid Al-Rashudi, Department of Islamic Studies, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
(Al-Aqsa TV, February 29, 2008)
*****************************************
"I am optimistic that within ten years, Israel will come to its end."
---Riyad Nasan al-Agha, Syrian Minister of Culture
(Al-Hiwar TV, April 19, 2008)

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Dusan Kahan • May 28, 2013 at 05:44

Palestinians get monies all the time. Their budgets have been based on our money since the very beginning - plus what they steal from well-meaning naive foreigners.

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