Asked about the Palestinian letter reportedly coming next week, in which Mahmoud Abbas — currently in the 88th month of his 48-month term as Palestinian president, having failed to hold the elections he promised a year ago (when he entered into still another reconciliation agreement with the terrorist group he previously promised to dismantle) — will demand that Israel stop construction in the disputed territories, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak noted that “Not a single new settlement has been built in the last three years since this [Netanyahu] government is in power.”
The only authorized Israeli construction is in existing settlements that will be part of Israel in any conceivable peace agreement, pursuant to the understanding reached a decade ago with the U.S. that a “settlement freeze” meant no new settlements and no expansion of the boundaries of existing ones – what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the “Google Earth Test” – not construction within established settlements. In her recent memoir, Rice confirmed both the informal understanding and Israeli compliance with it throughout the Bush administration.
Not only has the Netanyahu government adhered to that understanding; it implemented an unprecedented ten-month construction freeze, which predictably produced no Palestinian response other than a demand in the tenth month that it be continued.
Back when he was he was actually in office, Abbas rejected the offer by Israeli Prime Minister Olmert of a Palestinian state on land equivalent to 100 percent of the West Bank with a capital in Jerusalem. He is a Potemkin president, making “demands” for Israeli steps he knows are neither required nor realistic, still refusing to recognize a Jewish state, or defensible borders, or an end-of-claims agreement, still unwilling to tell his people, in Arabic, what is required for a Palestinian state.
Instead of delivering a letter, he should make his Bir Zeit speech.
Do you blame Abbas? The media will still give him a free pass, not matter what he does or does not do, especially the public relations shills who cover the State Department. And since President Obama and Sec. of State Clinton can never seem to make a single demand on Abbas, why should Abbas take any risks toward compromise? It's not as if he won't be rewarded by the administration regardless of what he does or does not do. Even after his UN stunt, this administration is still seeking to circumvent the law which prevents funding to UNESCO. For the Palestinians, this administration is the gift that keep on giving.
Obama told the Palestinians to sit tight till the elections are over, apparently. n nNo doubt, he will have more 'flexibility' to help Abbas too, not just 'Vladimir'. n nIsrael must have its own reasons for keeping Abbas around, otherwise the hateful, corrupted old Holocaust denier would have long departed the scene.
God Himself is set to settle this issue once and for all – Book of Obadiah and Ezekiel 38-39 – all finding themselves on the wrong side of His clear-cut decisions will spend eternity on the wrong side of the Fence of the Two Pastures. n nOn God's Bad Side, enjoying His wrath. n nThat is what happens when they spend their time on Earth pouring their wrath out on Him.