This is the least surprising development in the “peace” negotiations, via Time, Arab League Joins Abbas In Rejecting Israel As Jewish State:
The Arab League has backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, as U.S.-backed peace talks near a deadline next month.Arab foreign ministers said in a statement from Cairo that the League continues to support efforts to end Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and rejects the notion of a “Jewish state,” affirming Palestinian beliefs that the label would lead to discrimination against Israel’s large Arab minority, Reuters reports.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has taken a hard line in dealing with Palestinians, has made Arab recognition of Israel as a Jewish state a prerequisite for peace. “In recognizing the Jewish state you (Palestinians) would finally make clear that you are truly prepared to end the conflict,” Netanyahu said on Tuesday.
As Joel Pollak at Breitbart.com notes:
In rejecting Israel as a Jewish state, the Arab League has proved conclusively that it was never serious about peace, but merely seeking another way of destroying Israel. Rather than end the conflict, the Arab League has instead deferred to the Islamic concept of Dar al-Islam, according to which lands once conquered by Islamic empires can never be returned to non-Muslim control.Moreover, the Arab League has effectively sunk President Barack Obama’s latest push for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry made clear last year that they saw the Arab Peace Initiative as the basis for their renewed efforts. Yet if the Arab Peace Initiative cannot contemplate accepting Israel as a Jewish state, there is no reason for Israel to consider it a serious proposal, nor for Palestinians to compromise.Over the weekend, U.S. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said that while the U.S. considered Israel a Jewish state, it would not insist that the Palestinians do so. Her statement appeared to backtrack from those made recently by Obama and Kerry. Without such recognition, the Israeli government will be reluctant to make concessions. The peace process is effectively dead, killed once again by Arab rejection of Jewish statehood.
The concept of Israel being a Jewish State is not new.
U.N. General Assembly Resolution 181, which proposed the partition of British Mandatory Palestine (which was supposed to be a Jewish homeland in its entirety) specifically referred to the creation of a “Jewish State” and a separate “Arab State.” (emphasis added)
PLAN OF PARTITION WITH ECONOMIC UNIONPART IFuture constitution and government of PalestineA. TERMINATION OF MANDATE, PARTITION AND INDEPENDENCE1. The Mandate for Palestine shall terminate as soon as possible but in any case not later than 1 August 1948.2. The armed forces of the mandatory Power shall be progressively withdrawn from Palestine, the withdrawal to be completed as soon as possible but in any case not later than 1 August 1948.The mandatory Power shall advise the Commission, as far in advance as possible, of its intention to terminate the Mandate and to evacuate each area.The mandatory Power shall use its best endeavours to ensure than an area situated in the territory of the Jewish State, including a seaport and hinterland adequate to provide facilities for a substantial immigration, shall be evacuated at the earliest possible date and in any event not later than 1 February 1948.3. Independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem, set forth in part III of this plan, shall come into existence in Palestine two months after the evacuation of the armed forces of the mandatory Power has been completed but in any case not later than 1 October 1948. The boundaries of the Arab State, the Jewish State, and the City of Jerusalem shall be as described in parts II and III below.4. The period between the adoption by the General Assembly of its recommendation on the question of Palestine and the establishment of the independence of the Arab and Jewish States shall be a transitional period.
Harry Truman recognized Israel as a Jewish state, as reportedly did Yasser Arafat in private negotiations and Palestinian negotiators in 2007 again in private.
The Arabs publicaly rejected a Jewish state in 1947, and they do now publicly.
That’s the heart of the problem. Nothing has changed. If anything, the refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state has gotten worse.
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