Article

2007-10-07 Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Don't accept two-state solution, refugees tell Abbas

Representatives of Palestinian refugees warned Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas over the weekend against surrendering their "right of return" by accepting a two-state solution during next month's planned US-sponsored peace conference in Maryland. The warning came as former PA prime minister Ahmed Qurei, who is better known as Abu Ala, said the Palestinians would not accept a state that did not include Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

He said the Palestinians would boycott the conference unless an agreement was reached with Israel beforehand on all the "fundamental" issues: the status of Jerusalem, the borders of the future Palestinian state and the problem of the refugees.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, meanwhile, is likely to address the diplomatic process at Sunday's weekly cabinet session, where the ministers are expected to hear assessments on the recent talks between Olmert and Abbas.

Abbas said Saturday that Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams would hold their first meeting on Monday to draft a joint statement on principles for future peace talks ahead of the planned conference in Annapolis.

In a letter to Abbas, Salman Abu Sitta, a prominent spokesman for Palestinian refugees, wrote: "We are aware of the pressure you are facing to abandon the Palestinian position and endorse Israel's vision. But what has drawn our attention more than anything else is Israel's attempt to redefine the idea of the two-state solution. Israel now wants mutual recognition - Israel as the national homeland of the Jews and, on what's left of the land, Palestine as the national homeland of the Palestinians."

Abu Sitta described the Israeli formula as "extremely dangerous," saying it should be rejected by all Arabs. He said accepting this formula would be tantamount to abandoning the Arab right to Palestine and accepting the Jews' ostensible historical and biblical rights to the land.

Posted by Fred 2007-10-07 00:00|| || Front Page|| [32 views ] Top
File under: Palestinian Authority

#1 Is it just me, or does it seem to you that this Mideast peace conference is actually threatening to "do something?" The islamists seem awfully keen for it not to happen.

Posted by Seafarious">Seafarious 2007-10-07 00:10|| 2007-10-07 00:10|| Front Page Top

#2 Personally, I go for the three state solution: Israel, Jordan and Egypt. No Palestine.

Posted by Rambler">Rambler 2007-10-07 00:37|| 2007-10-07 00:37|| Front Page Top

#3 What all of them fail to realize and refuse to understand is that not only do the Jews have biblical rights to the land but their only claim is that it is GOD GIVEN LAND. Every other nation took land by conquest. This land was promised by the creator of the universe. Absolutely nothing shall change that no matter what they try.

Posted by newc">newc 2007-10-07 01:26|| 2007-10-07 01:26|| Front Page Top

#4 I wonder, what's going to happen to Condi, once Bush's presidency is over?

Posted by gromgoru 2007-10-07 07:54|| 2007-10-07 07:54|| Front Page Top

#5 She'll return to academia and live well off her Saudi pension, just like everybody else at State and the CIA.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2007-10-07 07:58|| 2007-10-07 07:58|| Front Page Top

#6 The "Two State" solution is a communist inspired charade intended as a stopgap measure aimed at distracting world attention while Palestinian terrorists attempted to commit genocide. Their efforts failed and along with that failure Israel now has every right to discard any and all commitments to this hudna-disguised-as-roadmap. Long ago, the Palestiniansby breaking every promise ever madeforfeited any right to participate in the region. They should be so fortunate as to be ejected alive from their pestilential cesspits in Gaza and the West Bank. What they truly deserve is far, far worse.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-10-07 10:25|| 2007-10-07 10:25|| Front Page Top

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