Abbas Cannot Make Concessions on Any Core Issue

by Khaled Abu Toameh
March 10, 2014 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4204/abbas-concessions

"The dispute with Israel is not only over recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.The dispute is over Jerusalem, settlements, refugees and borders." — Mohamed Shtayyeh, Member of Fatah Central Committee.
Abbas is not authorized to make concessions on any of these issues.
Today it is clear that the Palestinian Authority is preparing to hold Israel responsible for the failure of the peace talks because of its refusal to comply with all of the Palestinians' demands.

Even if the Palestinian Authority recognizes Israel as a Jewish state, the gap between the two parties remains as wide as ever over most of the core issues.

As the Americans and Israelis continue to demand Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, a senior Palestinian Authority official revealed that this issue was no longer the main obstacle to reaching a peace agreement between the Palestinians and Israel.

Mohamed Shtayyeh, member of the Fatah Central Committee and former member of the Palestinian negotiating team, said that gap between the two parties now remains wide over major issues such as settlements, Jerusalem, borders and refugees.

Shtayyeh and other senior Palestinian officials insist that the only way to move forward with the peace process is by forcing Israel to accept the Palestinian demands regarding these major issues.

"The dispute with Israel is not only over recognizing Israel as a Jewish state," Shtayyeh said. "The dispute is over Jerusalem, settlements, refugees and borders."

The Palestinians say that the real problem facing the peace process is the refusal of President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to accept the fact that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is not authorized to make any concessions on any of these core issues.

"The Americans are behaving as if this is a personal dispute between President Abbas and [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu," said a senior advisor to Abbas in Ramallah. "Obama and Kerry think that once Abbas signs an agreement or accepts Israeli and American demands, all the Palestinians would take to the streets to support the peace process."

"Abu Mazen [Abbas] remains fully committed to the Palestinian national rights and he will not succumb under any form of pressure," explained Palestinian political analyst Hani Habib.

Habib said that despite their weakness, the Palestinians are determined to go to the United Nations to seek recognition of a Palestinian state once the talks fail. He also said that the Palestinian Authority has plans to file complaints against Israel with the International Criminal Court.

Abbas, who is expected to meet with Obama in Washington on March 17, will once again make it clear that without accepting all Palestinian demands on the core issues there would be no agreement with Israel.

Abbas's position on the core issues was relayed to Obama and Kerry on a number of occasions over the past few months.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at a press conference in Ramallah, on January 4, 2013. (Image source: U.S. State Department)

On the issue of Jerusalem, Abbas continues to insist on a full Israeli withdrawal from east Jerusalem, including the Old City, and turning it into the capital of a future Palestinian state.

As for the borders, Abbas has made it clear that the pre-1967 lines would become the borders of a Palestinian state, with "minor" amendments that take into consideration new facts created on the ground over the past four decades.

With regards to the settlements, the Palestinian position is also very clear: Israel must remove all settlements and settlers from the West Bank.

And on the explosive issue of the refugees, Abbas continues to insist on the "right of return" for those Palestinians who wish to move to Israel. True, Abbas recently declared that he does not wish to "flood" Israel with millions of refugees. However, this is out of the conviction that most of the refugees would agree to accept financial compensation or resettlement in Arab and Western countries. Representatives of the refugees have responded by criticizing Abbas, arguing that he is not authorized to make any concessions on the "sacred right of return."

Nabil Sha'ath, a senior Palestinian official, reaffirmed the Palestinian position this week when he accused Israel of rejecting the "foundations for peace."

Sha'ath stressed that Israel's refusal to accept the Palestinian demands regarding the core issues would lead to the failure of the peace talks.

Today it is clear that the Palestinian Authority is preparing to hold Israel responsible for the failure of the peace talks because of its refusal to comply with all of the Palestinians' demands.

The peace talks are scheduled to end in late April in accordance with Kerry's nine-month deadline. But the Palestinian Authority leadership has no plans to wait until then to declare the failure of the peace process.

Palestinian officials in Ramallah say that the talks with Israel have already failed, but Obama and Kerry continue to live in denial. There are no direct talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Rather, each side is conducting separate negotiations with Obama and Kerry.

The latest statements from Palestinian Authority officials show that the issue of Israel's Jewishness is only a secondary issue compared with the sensitive issues of Jerusalem, refugees, borders and settlements.

Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is not going to bring the two sides closer to reaching agreement on any of these core issues. This is what Obama needs to take into consideration when he meets with Abbas. He also needs to take into consideration what many Palestinians are saying – that Abbas is not authorized to make concessions on any of these issues.

Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on X (formerly Twitter)

© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Related Topics: Palestinian Authority

Recent Articles by Khaled Abu Toameh

Hamas Must Be Defeated, Not Legitimized, 2024-11-10
Iran's New Plan: Lost Gaza, So Take West Bank, 2024-09-05
Iran's War Against Israel - From the West Bank, 2024-08-28
Palestinians' Musical Chairs: Replacing One Mohammed with Another Mohammed, 2024-03-01
Palestinians Need New Leaders, Not New Governments, 2024-02-26

receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free gatestone institute mailing list.

Comment on this item

7 Reader Comments

Lon W. • Mar 10, 2014 at 23:35

The "recommendation" was refused many years ago. No partition. Very simple, and anything else discussed is moot.

Reply->

Wallace Edward Brand • Mar 10, 2014 at 23:26

Exercising sovereignty requires meeting standards first stated when a new world order was established after the peace of Westpahlia in 1648. But those standards were restated in 1933 in the Montevideo Convention. The first of these is the requirement of a unified control over the people in a defined territory. Nor can he meet the second requirement of defining the people of the state -- the Palestinian Arabs change from time to time based on redrafts of the PLO Charter. I'll leave a full comparison of the facts with the law to others, but when the NY court looked at PLO claim of sovereign immunity in the Klinghoffer case, it went into more detail. That was the case where they tossed Leon Klinghoffer and his wheelchair overboard at sea and his heirs sued for compensation.

Reply->

Bart Benschop • Mar 10, 2014 at 22:39

Dear Sir,

Mr. Mahmoud Abbas is a Muslim, that is someone who submits to Al Shari'iah, the Law of Allah, His Name be praised. Under this law any agreement between a Muslim and a non-Muslim, other than for the non-Muslim submitting to Al Shari'iah, is forbidden.

Kind regards,

Bart Benschop

Reply->

Kenneth Besig • Mar 10, 2014 at 13:09

The President of the criminal terrorist entity commonly known as the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, will never concede anything that allows for the continued existence of the Jewish State of Israel and does not include the extermination of the Jewish People. The Palestinians have maintained for decades and have indoctrinated their people and the rest of the Arab world that Israel is an illegal and illegitimate colonial body inflicted on the Arab world by the Western Powers manipulated by Jewish theft and cunning, and that the Jewish people as a whole are a criminal and mongrel race of thieving and murderous subhumans. If you do not believe me just take a look at the educational and journalistic materials produced by the Palestinian Authority, and the anti-Jewish and anti-Israel hate propaganda you will find there can only be rivaled by the sort of anti-Jewish propaganda produced in Nazi Germany. Mr Abbas, the PA, Hamas, and the Palestinian people pray, study, dream, and deeply hope for the day when they and the Arab world can utterly destroy the Jewish State of Israel and physically exterminate every Jew they can get their bloody hands on. When Abbas claims the "right of return" he means exactly that, the return of millions of so called Palestinians to sovereign Israel in order to destroy the Jewish State. And when that same Abbas, PA, Hamas, and the Palestinians refer to settlements, they of course mean the Jewish villages and towns in the Disputed Territories, but they also mean what they consider to be the illegal and illegitimate Jewish settlement known as the State of Israel. There can, of course, be peace between Israel and the Palestinians, but only when the Palestinians give up their horrific dreams of totally and utterly destroying every vestige of the Jewish State of Israel and their vicious genocidal dreams of slaughtering every Jew. Once the PA, Hamas, and the Palestinians give up on war and genocide to destroy Israel, peace between us and them is possible, but as things stand now, Israel must continue to defend us from these bloodthirsty, uncompromising, rejectionist, and murderous Palestinians and their thuggish and violent leadership.

Reply->

Danny Kid • Mar 10, 2014 at 07:22

In Muslim Arab culture, there is victory or defeat. Any concession is defeat, which is unacceptable. It's not like it's a secret, yet the West doesn't get it.

Reply->

Robert Davis • Mar 10, 2014 at 06:36

The PA can say what it wants. Their words have no merit whatsoever and, on top of that, no peace can come out of any agreement with the PA for many reasons:

1. This territory is too small to be parted; 2. Their presence in the middle of Israel puts a huge pressure on Israel, not just military, but above all politically; 3. Their further demands such as water, etc. will have no end; and 4. Last, but not least, as long as the "Palestinians" will be there, Arab nations will never accept Israel or make peace with Israel. This means that a peace agreement with the PA and Israel is like trying to place a square peg in a round hole. It is simply impossible no matter how long you keep trying. It cannot work and, even if it worked, the result would be the whole device would blow up. Which means it is better not to screw it! Imagine if you screw it up on a plane - all passengers will die! The only way to have peace inside Israel and outside with Arab nations is to transfer "Palestinians" first no matter what Obama does - veto or no veto, cry or not, sanctions or not. Any situation is better than an agreement with the PA for both Israel and "Palestinians" who will end up as mince meat in a local war or worse in a 3rd World War.

Reply->

JWH

Robert Davis • Mar 11, 2014 at 18:28

The hypocrisy of this situation is blaring. The Palestinians refuse to negotiate on any of the issues in question. The Palestinians insist that Israel concede to all of their demands. The Palestinians are prepared to declare the end of the "peace process" long before the agreed upon expiry (April). And then the Palestinians accuse Israel of derailing and destroying the peace process. Does no one else see this hypocrisy? This borders on outright insanity. And when the world (United Nations and EU) turns a blind eye to this hypocrisy and openly condemns Israel, it is blatant Anti-Semitism. The fact remains, the Arab world has been very open about its agenda: they seek the total destruction of the State of Israel, and the death of all Jews, by "driving them all into the sea". There can never be peace, and there can never be a Palestinian State.

Reply->