Buoyed by support from the West – the U.S., the European Union, the G-8, and individual leaders – for a total or near-total freeze on Jewish construction in the Biblical areas of Judea and Samaria, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan, too, are strengthening their stand.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas – also known as Abu Mazen since the days he served as PLO mastermind of the Achille Lauro terrorist attack – said this week that he does not plan to renew talks with Israel until it totally freezes all construction in Judea and Samaria. He also says Netanyahu must modify his own position.
Abbas also wants Netanyahu to withdraw his own demands for the establishment of a Palestinian state, namely, that it be demilitarized and recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
At the same time, PA prime minister Salam Fayyad says he sees a Palestinian state arising in two years’ time.
“We do not accept the continued construction in the settlements,” Abbas said this week in Ramallah, essentially mimicking U.S. President Barack Obama’s words in his famous address in Cairo nearly a month ago.
This is not the first time the Palestinian Authority has raised this demand, but it appears to be the first time it is sticking to it. In November 2007, it was reported that the PA had told the U.S. that it would accept nothing less than a total freeze on Jewish settlement building before the Annapolis peace conference scheduled for later that month. However, the conference was held, with PA participation, and a construction freeze was not called.
Abbas also wants Netanyahu to withdraw his own demands for the establishment of a Palestinian state, namely, that it be demilitarized and recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
Jordan, too, has entered the fray. Jordan’s Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told former Israeli government minister Yossi Beilin on Monday that even a partial implementation of the Saudi peace plan is contingent upon a total freeze in construction in Judea and Samaria. Israel has not accepted the Saudi plan, which calls for a total withdrawal from all areas liberated in 1967, in exchange for “peace” with the Arab world.