Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas hardened his stance Wednesday, telling PATV viewers that he will accept nothing less than a new Arab state along the lines of the 1949 Armistice.
Abbas’s proposed state would include all the parts of Jerusalem that were restored to the Jewish state in the 1967 Six-Day War, including decades-old Jewish neighborhoods such as Gilo, Ramot and Talpiot. The ancient Old City of Jerusalem would become the centerpiece of the new PA state.
Abbas has previously made the same demands, but his appearance on television prepares the Arab population to expect no Arab concessions on the issue.
No Israeli leader, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, has ever agreed to withdraw from the neighborhoods of Jerusalem where 250,000 Jews have moved since they were liberated in 1967.
"We have 6,205 square kilometers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip," Abbas stated. "We want it as it is." He also demanded that the scheduled Middle East conference in Annapolis, Maryland include an agreement with Israel on "Jerusalem, refugees, borders, settlements, water and security."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reportedly has now agreed to put Jerusalem on the negotiating table but has not been specific as to who will receive the spoils.
The Arabic Al Quds Al-Arabiya newspaper reported Monday morning that Olmert had reached an agreement with Jordan that Arabs in eastern Jerusalem would be granted Jordanian citizenship.
The plan would also place Jerusalem's Muslim holy sites under the control of the Hashemite kingdom, according to the report.
The Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement denying the report, however. “The idea never existed,” said the PMO.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected back in Jerusalem this weekend, hoping to shepherd Israel and PA officials through cobbling a joint statement before the November 26 Mideast summit.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he believes the meeting will lead to direct negotiations on final status issues between Israel and the PA.
An acerbic editorial published in The New York Sun newspaper by Rick Richman noted dryly that the PA has yet to pass the first hurdle in meeting the demands of the U.S.-sponsored Roadmap plan, which both Abbas and Olmert insist is the basis for their negotiations. The plan calls for temporary borders for a new Arab state to be located within the current borders of Israel, followed by the creation of permanent borders if the PA and Israel fulfill their previous commitments.
"Under the Roadmap, final status negotiations were to occur only after a sustained and effective effort by the Palestinian Authority to dismantle terrorist capabilities and infrastructure, Phase I, and then only after the establishment of a Palestinian state with provisional borders and limited sovereignty, Phase II,” Richman noted.
“With respect to Phase I, the PA has yet to dismantle a single terrorist organization, or arrest a terrorist leader, in the four years since the Palestinians accepted the Roadmap," he observed.
Within the last four months alone, approximately 1,000 rockets and mortar shells have been fired at Israeli targets from Gaza, the stronghold of the Hamas terrorist organization. Ynet quoted IDF statistics showing that about 350 rockets (often called "Kassams") and 650 mortar shells have been fired at Israel in that time – an average of almost 8.5 attacks per day.
"The terror organizations, with Hamas' sponsorship, are trying to maintain a steady stream of terror against Israel," an IDF source said. "The use of simple mortars… doesn't lead to a large scale response by the IDF, and enables Hamas to continue building its strength inside Gaza."