Dear Mr. Abbas,
Generally I write to my fellow Jews and Israelis for our high holidays. For you, Yom Kippur is, of course, not a day of reckoning, but I hope you will accept these words from an Israeli who has sponsored your cause for years with all his heart. I have done so no less for the sake for my country than for the your country that has yet to come into being. Because a state of Israel that oppresses another people is an affront to my Jewishness and for that of the majority of Jews worldwide for whom human rights are an inviolable value -- precisely because our people has suffered immensely from bigotry and racism.
Given my sympathy for your cause, I hope you will listen to my call to you; you know, as well as anybody else, that the two-state solution is running out of oxygen. If it is not implemented soon, it will die.
You will not get a viable Palestinian state from Netanyahu. It's against his ideology. Your success depends on convincing Israelis that they must elect another government. And there is only one way you can do this: In your speech at the U.N. you spoke to your own people. Now you must speak to Israelis. You must take the step Sadat took. You must come to the Knesset and tell Israelis that you recognize Israel as the Jewish people's homeland.
Tell Israelis that the Palestinian people demand that their tragedy of 1948 be acknowledged and recognized; but that you do not demand physical return of refugees to Israel; that individual Palestinians can claim compensation for the loss of their homes; but that, as has been the case in Europe after WWII, you recognize that physical return is no longer an option.
You certainly know that for at least a decade, 70 percent of Israelis believe that two states for two people is the only way to peace, and that the same proportion thinks that in this generation there is no Palestinian partner for peace. The main reason is the second intifada. Less than two years ago you admitted that this uprising was the greatest mistake Palestinians ever made -- and you are right: Israelis, ever since, have no longer trusted Palestinian intentions.
The other reason is that Israelis believe that for most Palestinians the two-state solution is but the first step in a two-stage process to abolish Israel as a Jewish state; that once Palestine is recognized along the 1967 borders, your people will continue to attack Israel physically and diplomatically; that you will insist that every Palestinian refugee around the world has the right to return to the lands and houses of their forefathers; that you will never accept Israel's legitimacy as the homeland of the Jewish people.
As a result, they say: Why take the security risks involved in implementing the two-state solution in which Tel Aviv and Raanana are in within the range of Palestinian rocket attacks? And you know very well that this is not just a paranoid fear: The South of Israel has been shelled for years after Israel withdrew from Gaza.
I believe that Israel must take the security risk involved; that it has the military strength to deal with these risks if your Palestinian brethren decide to return to the path of violence. I believe that Israel must take this risk because this is the only way that Israel can remain the democratic homeland of the Jews; because a democratic Israel can only exist if Palestinians have their own state.
But here comes the crucial point. I know that the Palestinian right of return is firmly etched into your people's ethos; that this right has been at the core of your people's songs, books and stories.
You, Mr. Abbas, know that Israelis will never accept the right of return. This, for them, is a red line they will never cross. The vast majority of Israelis have been born here In the last six decades, a vibrant culture has come into being here. They have nowhere to go, and they don't want to go anywhere. This is their home, and they will fight for it without compromise.
This is not the just the view of people like Netanyahu and Lieberman for whom, as you know, I have little sympathy. It is the view of Tzipi Livni; of Shaul Mofaz and Shelly Yechimovitch. You need to realize that it is even the view of the remaining three MKs of Meretz, Israel's party most committed to liberal values.
You are faced with a terrible dilemma, Mr. Abbas. Your legitimacy as leader of the Palestinian people seems to depend on not renouncing the right of return. And yet, your success in establishing a state for your people depends on convincing Israelis that you accept Israel as the homeland of the Jews.
Your recognition of Israel as a Jewish state will also help you gaining support from EU countries, who would be more inclined to support your bid for U.N. recognition if it was connected to the recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people. You may remember that Spain, the country spearheading support for your U.N. bid, also just recognized Israel as a Jewish state, and you might take this as a lead for a fruitful line of action.
Mr. Abbas: I know that this proposal is very difficult for you to accept. I write to you on the eve of Yom Kippur, because my heart is weary and full of sorrow; because I see the two-state solution slipping away, and along with it the state of Israel as I have hoped to see it and the state of Palestine that I believe your people deserves. I hope you will find the strength to make this historic step. For the sake of your people, and ours.
Mahmoud Abbas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mahmoud Abbas' speech at the UN [part 1/3] - YouTube
BBC News - Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas makes UN ...
Israel's ultra-Orthodox rethink Yom Kippur ritual - Haaretz Daily ...
A Middle East miracle might just happen | Malcolm Rifkind - Times ...
Netanyahu's government has been playing a dangerous game ever since it has been in office. It has no intention of genuinely negotiating the establishment of a Palestinian state, at any time now or in the future. Instead, it continues with illegal settlements in violation of UN resolutions and world opinion.
The charter of the Likud Party, of which Netanyahu is leader, expressly denies any Palestinian state in the West Bank and insists that the entire region belongs to Israel.
That being the illegitimate position of Netanyahu and his government, the time has finally come for its expulsion from the United Nations and the withdrawal of its trading rights with the European Union.
Without these bilateral trading concessions, Netanyahu's government would be forced to respect the will of the UN in order to rescue its economy which is entirely dependent on the EU bilateral trade and US aid. Currently, Israel makes a mockery of international law and the Geneva Convention on human rights. That is a threat to world peace and should continue no longer. The international community should act now.
In WW1, the 'Allies' liberated the Arab tribes against Germany and Turkey. Yet, less than 20 years later, every single Arab country (except Jordan) sided with Germany in WW2--against who? The same nations who liberated them. They were never able too look at Israel from a practical perspective and say: "What if peace?"
On Sept. 30, 2011, Hamas leader Ismail Haniya again repeated his longstanding position that Palestinians should seek to establish their state through armed struggle not at the UN General Assembly. “We support the establishment of a Palestinian state on liberated territories but without recognizing the [Israeli] occupation,”
Given the nature of the Arab leadership--which goes back to WW1, I think the Pal~Arabs are rather fortunate that Netanyahu is the worst Israel has to throw back at them.
Algeria and Lebanon/Syria were French so that would be accurate as the French were German allies-Vichy. Egypt? Libya? Let's see... KSA? :))))))
Americans have a desperately poor command of history.
UN Res. 3236 states:
"2. Reaffirms also the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for their return;"
There are many more references that state unequivocally that the Palestinians have the Right of Return.
That the Israelis won't accept the Palestinians' rights is reason for the Palestinians to go to the UN to enlist the broader world community's support for their rights, not a reason for the Palestinians to abrogate those rights.
The Arab colonizers and imperialists reserved all rights to themselves only!
There is no sense to beg them to recognize a Jewish State!
They will never do it!
By negotiating with the Arab colonizers and imperialists Israel only delegitimize itself and legitimize the Arab colonial occupation of the Middle-East and North Africa.
http://charlesredfern.com/2011/09/23/are-christian-zionists-doing-israel-any-favors/.
Perhaps you could also see the benefice of a one for one right of return policy that allows select Palestinains to return on an equivalent basis tocurrent Jewish in migration to Israel.
This would have a certain Soloman's (or Solomon"s if one prefers) justice and would not disrturb the current demographics too greatly. I am wondering what you think about this idea?.
Again, your heart is in the right place and I agree that the Palestinians need to finally become mindful of Jewish fears, aspirations and learn to talk to those of good faith like yourself.
No one elected you as Israel chief negotiator...... Please stop the begging........
Hope this helps :)