Our Desire To Destroy Israel As A Jewish State Is Not A Core Issue

By Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority President

The American-sponsored negotiations between us and Israel reached a stalemate long ago, with neither side budging on what many are calling the “core issues.” Those include arrangements for Palestinian refugees, borders, the status of Jerusalem and its holy sites, and the removal of Israeli settlers from whatever areas necessary. So far so good. But all of a sudden the Israelis have introduced a new one: that we recognize Israel as a Jewish state instead of trying to eliminate it through demographic means.

Since when are we supposed to care about Jews? This conflict is, and always has been, about the historical injustices dealt to the Palestinians, and who cares whether tens of thousands of Jews have died as a result? Since when is the survival of the Jews a core issue?

It’s interesting that Prime Minister Netanyahu brings up the question now, instead of letting us pretend incitement to kill Israelis is an isolated factor, as opposed to a fundamental attempt to educate our citizens that Israel has no legitimacy. Well, why didn’t anyone else bring it up? Other than the British in 1917, the Israelis in 1948, and successive Israeli leaders since then.

Then there’s the question of refugees. What’s wrong with insisting it’s about justice for the deprived, instead of a flood of millions of Palestinians into the area that will quickly overwhelm the Jewish population? We shall ignore for the moment the fact that the refugees themselves have by and large accepted the fact that they have no hope of returning, at least not en masse, to the homes they left behind. And the fact that the State of Palestine that we’re building right now will explicitly deny citizenship to those refugees and their descendants, for the specific purpose of foisting them on Israel. It’s pretty jarring to shift the focus onto the effect of that scenario, i.e. the elimination of the world’s only Jewish state. We have to focus on the other core issues.

Such as borders. Which, I need not remind you, will exclude Jews from the confines of the nascent Palestine. But it’s not about the Jews. It’s about denying the Jews a foothold in this land.

And Jerusalem: what happens if we concede any Jewish control of, or even presence in, our holy city? You know, the one so holy that the Koran never even mentions it. As long as the city is under Muslim control, we do not plan to make an issue of its being under Jewish rule.

Recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is not a core issue. At least as long as we can fool Europe, Obama, and the Israeli Left into believing that.