Palestinian Arab businessman denies peaceful statements after critics slam him

Munib al-Masri, the richest Palestinian Arab businessman and associate with Mahmoud Abbas, wrote an article in Walla where he seems to support a two-state solution. He denies that the Saudi "Arab Peace Initiative" would result in flooding Israel with Palestinian Arab "refugees" and he claims that Yasir Arafat understood and supported the existence of Jews in the region. He ends off with:

When Edmond Rothschild visited Palestine in 1914, he urged the leaders of Zionism live with "their Arab brothers" - Palestinians, for all are children of Abraham. I still believe that the future of our two countries, Israel and the Palestinians, is based on the recognition of our common heritage as Jews, Muslims and Christians.

After this interview was published, Hamas attacked him, saying that if the article is accurate, then al-Masri is a traitor. Other Palestinian Arabs denounced al-Masri as well, including the Palestinian Resistance Committee , which insisted that his statements amounted to "normalization" and they demanded that he publicly apologize.

When contacted by Arab media, al-Masri responded that he is not responsible for how his article was translated into Hebrew. He confirmed that he wants to see a Palestinian state on the 1967 "borders," with Jerusalem as its capital, and that all Palestinian "refugees" "return" as well as the release of all prisoners.

He didn't tell the Arab media that Israel must be recognized in any fashion.

He had a chance to push back and say that it is time for Palestinian Arabs to accept Israel as a permanent state and to stop trying to destroy it so everyone could benefit - but he chose not to.