Palestinian intransigence makes Mideast peace impossible

Nathan Cheiman

Abbas, who has failed to hold elections for 10 years, lacks legitimacy. Former US envoy, Martin Indyk, criticised Abbas for rejecting peace talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and accused him of “being paralysed” for not making compromises, because of his lack of legitimacy.

One is reminded of past media reports declaring, that during Abbas’ audience with Pope Francis, the pope referred to him as “an angel of peace”. 

As it later emerged, the Italian newspaper, La Stampa, reported that what the pope actually said was: “May the angel of peace destroy the evil spirit of war: may you be an angel of peace.”

Hamas (and Islamic Jihad) have been working to establish a foothold in the West Bank to overthrow Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, just as Hamas did in Gaza.

Indeed, ISIS has also infiltrated Gaza and the West Bank and this has led both Hamas and the PA to suppress news. 

In December 2014, (after the Gaza war), Hamas celebrated its 27th anniversary with a parade of 2 000 of its fighters and rockets. Khalil Al Hayya, a senior Hamas leader told the crowd that “this illusion called Israel will be removed”.

Lest anyone accept as trustworthy and reliable, information coming from the Palestinians, here is a narrative that took place in 2007. In November of that year, just as peace talks were getting underway, Saeb Erekat (a Palestinian peace negotiator) attempted to delegitimise Israel by saying that “no state in the world connects its national identity to a religious identity”. Oops.

That was before he read the draft constitution for “Palestine” which declares Islam the state religion of Palestine. 

Another problematic facet of negotiation, is Jerusalem. Yasser Arafat’s assertion that Jews had no historical connection to Jerusalem, was swiftly responded to by Israel’s top negotiator, Shlomo Ben-Ami, who retorted: “You are barely four million Muslim Palestinians and pretend to represent the one billion Muslims regarding the Temple Mount.” 

Because Abbas does not speak for Muslims globally, he cannot end global terror.

Conceivably, the words of Khaled Meshaal, head of Hamas, serve as a warning to those who think peace is achievable. In 2012, at a rally in Gaza, he had this to say: “Palestine is ours from the river to the sea, and from the south to the north. We will never recognise the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation and therefore there is no legitimacy for Israel.”

Northcliff, Johannesburg