Abbas on Nonviolence, in English

PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas met with representatives of Israel’s “cede land” camp, telling them to pressure Netanyahu – in the shadow of warnings by a top PA expert that any land given to Abbas will be grabbed up by Hamas.

Abbas met on Sunday with dozens of ex-generals, Kadima and other MKs, and other pro-PA-state activists, urging them to tell the Israeli public that he opposes violence. This, just hours before PA leaders charged Israel with “attacking our people” when it targeted Islamic Jihad and other terrorists preparing to fire missiles at Israel.

Abbas’ message was that he is committed to non-violence, that he is sincere about reaching a peace agreement, and that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu should be pressured to make further concessions so that direct talks can resume.

It is Abbas, however, who has refused to resume direct talks with Israel until Israel agrees to re-freeze Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria – as it did for ten months recently; even then, the PA refused to talk with Israel until the tenth month.

Lipkin: I Said No Such Thing
AFP quoted Binyamin Lipkin, editor of the hareidi-religious newspaper BaKehilah, as saying at the meeting that he would relay the message of the PA chief - whom AFP said he termed "sincere" - to his readers.

Contacted by Israel National News, Lipkin said he had said nothing of the sort. “What I said was that this was a pathetic meeting,” Lipkin related, “of all those who are frustrated and still somehow believe in some kind of peace despite all that has happened. It was sad, actually…”

Lipkin also said that he asked Abbas two questions: “Where were you for nine months when Israel froze the construction? And, when will we hear you say these nice things against violence and the like – in Arabic, to your own people, and not just in English to foreigners?”

Mitzna: Israel Has Accepted
Amram Mitzna, a former leader of Israel's Labor Party, was also present. AFP quoted him as saying he believes Israeli public opinion has become more accepting of the idea of Palestinian statehood. “The historic debate over what should be the agreement between us and the Palestinians is behind us," he said. "Therefore, this meeting is important. It gives hope, despite a difficult reality.”

Mitzna did not specify his sources for this information. Just two months ago, however, a poll conducted by the Dahaf Institute for The Peace Index found that 74.1% of adult Israeli Jews agree with this statement: "Even if a peace agreement is signed, the Palestinians will never accept Israel’s existence and would destroy it if they could.”

Asked in May of this year whether they would agree to evacuate communities or settlements in Judea and Samaria, not including Jerusalem, in return for ending the conflict with the Palestinians and full peace, only 26% of Israeli Jews living within the Green Line said they would be prepared to evacuate more than a few. (Poll by Maagar Mohot Survey Institute)

Lerner: Jerusalem is the Key
“Beware of polls that show Israeli support for a Palestinian state,” Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA (Independent Media Review and Analysis) told Israel National News. “They often do not take into account all the details that such a state would demand - such as the division of Jerusalem, which the public overwhelmingly opposes.”                              

Toameh: Land to Fatah Will Go to Hamas
Veteran Israeli-Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh spoke last month to a Jerusalem audience and said the Israeli-Arab conflict is not about settlements, but rather “about Israel’s very existence in this part of the world.”

Regarding Abbas, Toameh said he is “corrupt, discredited, weak and does not have much power. He is reliant on Israel, whose presence in the West Bank is ironically the only reason he has managed to stay in power. [If Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders as demanded by Abbas and the PLO,] Abbas will collapse and Hamas will take over the West Bank in less than a day. If I were Israel, I would not give Abbas one inch of land in the West Bank – not for ideological reasons, but to avoid a situation where Hamas and others would take over the area.”