The Arab League backs Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’s refusal to recognize the Jewish state while America scrambles to save the peace negotiations.
On Wednesday, following a two-day summit in Kuwait, the Arab League issued a communique in support of PA President Mahmoud Abbas for refusing to recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.
“We hold Israel entirely responsible for the lack of progress in the peace process and continuing tension in the Middle East,” the Arab League stated. “We express our absolute and decisive rejection to recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.”
Israel has repeatedly stressed that recognition of the Jewish state is a prerequisite for peace.
As the U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and the PA seem on the verge of collapse, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been scrambling to bring both sides closer to agreement.
Israel is scheduled to release 26 terrorists from prison on Saturday night according to a commitment it had made to advance the peace negotiations; it would be the fourth and final stage of the release of 104 prisoners with blood on their hands. The government in Jerusalem is considering reneging on the release, considering the continued belligerence – including the glorifying of terrorists and threats against the Jewish state – from the PA.
Israeli Ministers Oppose Prisoner Release
Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, on Israel Radio, expressed opposition to the prisoner release, noting the lack of cooperation on the Palestinian side.
“Although the government approved the release of the prisoners in four waves, he said, the decision was made with the assumption that peace negotiations would be conducted in good faith,” reports the Jerusalem Post.
“The Palestinians demand the release of prisoners without anything in return, other than participating in the negotiations themselves, said Bennett. Their declaration that they will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state proves there is no chance of reaching a deal with them,” the Post continues.
“We’ve reached a stage where, in order to prolong the negotiations, the Palestinians are demanding more and more unilateral concessions,” Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar said, reports Israel Hayom. “There’s no room for additional concessions simply so [the Palestinians] agree to continue negotiating with us.”
Former Islamist Blames PA for Breakdown in Talks
On Wednesday evening, approximately 150 demonstrators, including bereaved families of terror victims, demanded that Israel not free the prisoners. Larger protests, including thousands of people, have demonstrated over the past several months against the release of murderers.
Dr. Tawfiq Hamid, a senior fellow and chair for the study of Islamic Radicalism at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and a former member of the radical Al-Gama’a Al-Islamiyya in Egypt, which is blacklisted by the U.S. and other countries a terrorist group, blamed the Palestinian side completely for the breakdown of negotiations and the suffering of those living under the PA regime, according to an Israel National News report.
“You have one million Arabs living in Israel with the Jews, and they are not suffering like the Arabs who are actually controlled by Arabs” elsewhere in the region, Dr. Hamid pointed out, INN says.
“To be honest, you have to say that the suffering of the Palestinians is because of their leadership and the wrong decisions of leaders like Hamas, not Israel,” he declared. “The moment the Palestinian leadership stops its arrogance and its barbaric attitude towards the Jews then you will see that things will change and you will see that no Palestinian will be suffering there.”
Author: Atara Beck, staff writer, United with Israel
Date: Mar. 27, 2014
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