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Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Palestinians really hate not being the center of attention

The Camp David summit between the US and six Gulf states plans to address "the integration of ballistic missile defense architecture, more military exercises to address maritime, counterterrorism, air and missile defense challenges and government infrastructure against cyber hackers."

Obviously even if the official agenda didn't mention it, Iran will also be a major topic. The participants will make sure of that.

Poor Saeb Erekat. Among all the articles written about this summit and its political implications fo rthe entire Middle East, no one is talking about Palestinian Arabs. And his job is to make sure that the world always keeps the Palestinian issue front and center.

So Erekat issued a press release:
Executive Committee of the PLO member Saeb Erekat confirmed that the Palestinian issue will be present at the Camp David summit, which will bring together US President Barack Obama and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Erekat stressed in a statement "that the Palestinian issue in all its aspects is the central issue of the Gulf Cooperation Council, and all Arab countries," stressing that ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with its capital in East Jerusalem is the key to security and stability in the Middle East.
Funny how none of the Arab leaders mentioned the word "Palestinian" in relation to this summit. In terms of priorites, it is dead last.

Erekat, acting in the same fashion that we have seen the Palestinian Arab leadership use so often, is like a toddler at a dinner party interrupting his mother's conversation by saying "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!"


Unlike the Palestinian issue, he US relationship with Israel is cause for concern among the Gulf states:
To quote the informal and unattributable words of a prominent Arab diplomat recently: “We always suspected that the United States would sell us out to Iran, but we thought we had a safety net with Israel. The Americans, we thought, would not sell Israel out, but now we see that they are selling us all out together.