Dr. Saeb Erekat, Secretary-General of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told CNN that President of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas wishes US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania a speedy and full recovery.
However, if you look at the "Presidency" section on the Wafa Arabic website where all Abbas' official statements and communications are, there is not a word about wishing Trump a recovery on that page.
Abbas' Facebook page likewise does not say a word about this.
It's almost like Saeb Erakat is making things up to stall the freefall of Abbas' reputation in the US.
UPDATE: Just as I was publishing this, I saw this amazingly hypocritical tweet from Erakat:
Met with China’s 🇨🇳 Ambassador to Palestine 🇵🇸 QWA WEI . Appreciated China’s firm stand with int. Law , end the Israeli occupation. No to annexation and settlements . Two States 1967 borders. Help Palestine to fight COVID 19. pic.twitter.com/pYBED4Wf6Z
— Dr. Saeb Erakat الدكتور صائب عريقات (@ErakatSaeb) October 5, 2020
Yes, the Palestinian leaders are praising the Chinese government - which, as one commenter noted, is "the only regime in the entire world that has a systematic and openly admitted occupation and detention programme targeted at Muslims, Tibetans and Mongolians" - as a paradigm for upholding international law!
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PLO secretary general Saeb Erakat gave a long, angry interview with An Najah TV where he accused Israel of being fully responsible for everything wrong in the Middle East and the Palestinians as peace-seeking victims.
Some interesting claims:
"We signed the Oslo Agreement for our desire to achieve peace, end the occupation, live decent lives and solve final status issues, foremost of which is the refugee issue."
In short, Oslo was meant to create two states - both of which would be Palestinian, after the "right of return" was implemented. Jews would have no homeland in the PLO's vision of "peace."
"The Palestinian side has signed many agreements with the Israeli occupation, but in light of negotiations with it it has been proven that they have a negotiating behavior that signs the agreement and does not implement it."
Such as when Arafat said that he renounced terror in 1993 but was behind the deadly Second Intifada? Israel has consistently offered peace but it was never good enough - to say that the Palestinians wanted peace is absurd; they never accepted a peace plan that would leave a Jewish state in existence and secure.
In an angry response to those who blame the Palestinian leadership for the sorry situation they are in, he said, "How can this accusation be directed at the Palestinian leadership that clings to its principles, and what they did with the late President Yasser Arafat for his insistence on East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine and the right of return and all Palestinian principles is a perfect example, so they assassinated him."
I have seen examples of Erakat saying in Arabic that Israel assassinated Arafat, but never in English - because he knows that any Western diplomat would laugh him out of the room.
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I recently reported that Harvard University named serial liar and PLO propagandist Saeb Erakat to be a Fellow, teaching diplomacy this year.
The Clarion Project looked at what foreign nations give donations to American universities and colleges. It is no secret that many countries give lots of money to influence US curricula. Most give to several universities.
The Palestinian Authority itself only gave money to one university in the US.
Guess which one.
Even though the Palestinian Authority gets virtually all of its money from the West and it is always begging for more, somehow it found in its budget $2.6 million to give to Harvard. And by some sort of crazy coincidence, now Saeb Erakat is free to push his lies on today's Harvard students.
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PLO Secretary General is losing whatever tenuous grasp on reality he ever had.
His latest tweets are big on hyperbolic lies and short on any facts.
Palestine will sever its relations with any country that will move or open its embassy to Jerusalem.We urge all nation states to abide by international law ,including security council resolutions 478 and 2334 . Violating int. law is a sign of weakness not strength
— Dr. Saeb Erakat الدكتور صائب عريقات (@ErakatSaeb) September 6, 2020
Has the PLO severed all relations with the US?
Does Erakat actually think that his threat would sway anyone?
The PLO is so used to threatening other countries with terror if things don't go their way. But the Arab world no longer follows the PLO lead. These threats aren't scaring anyone, and meanwhile Israel keeps adding diplomatic victories.
International law specified occupation by force of other people’s territory is the highest form of terrorism . Enough lies and blackmail . No one can normalise Israeli settlements, annexation and occupation
— Dr. Saeb Erakat الدكتور صائب عريقات (@ErakatSaeb) September 6, 2020
Really? The "highest form of terrorism?" This coming from the people who made international terrorism what it is today?
Of course, nowhere in international law does it say that occupation is terrorism. In fact, it is not even illegal - which is why there are so many laws concerning the conduct of belligerent occupiers.
And exactly whose territory was Judea and Samaria in 1947? 1949? 1967? 1988? What was the exact date that it supposedly became Palestinian territory according to the international law that Erakat pretends to be so interested in?
My home town Jericho is 11000 years old , the mother of all cities , the oldest inhibited city on earth ,and getting younger we are still here and we will be for at least another 11000 years . This is a promise. Abandon the lies and the blackmail , try justice and fairness .
— Dr. Saeb Erakat الدكتور صائب عريقات (@ErakatSaeb) September 6, 2020
The earliest people to live in Jericho who still exist today are Jews, over a thousand years before the Arab invasion and colonization of the Holy Land and over two thousand years before Erakat's family came from Transjordan and Arabia to Palestine.
In fact, Erakat himself admitted that he was a Jordanian and Bedouin, and the only thing that makes him "Palestinian" was where he happened to be born, not where his family was from.
It's funny that any Zionist points are dismissed as "hasbara" but no one points out the obvious lies from the Secretary General of the PLO.
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Palestinian Media Watch translated an interview with Saeb Erakat where the accomplished liar tries mightily to come up with reasons why Arab nations shouldn't make peace with Israel - something that he and Hanan Ashrawi have been trying to do without much success.
They try different tacks to see if anything will resonate with the Arab world, but they aren't doing too well.
Erakat said:
There are [Arab] groups that say: ‘Palestine is not my cause.’ Groups say that ‘the Palestinians are ungrateful and we are employing them [the refugees]. We’ve helped them, but Israel is a beautiful, successful state.’ [Some] speak in Hebrew at universities to speak with Israel… This is a public birth for the Arab Zionists. There is no Arab Zionism, there are Arab Zionists… I have contacted Bahrain and sent official letters. I sent official letters and asked for two things: Not to follow the UAE [but] stick to the Arab Peace Initiative. And to convince the UAE to recant [the agreement with Israel]… I did the same with all the Arab states… It is not insignificant when an Arab photographs his son who puts the Israeli flag on his chest… This is Zionist thinking. Forbidden. This is forbidden.“
What exactly is his argument? He really doesn't have one. In the end, the best Erakat can do is to use the word "Zionist" as a general expletive and insult and say how unacceptable it is for an Arab to engage in "Zionist thinking."
What is Zionist thinking? That to build a nation you have to do the hard work yourself and not rely on outsiders to do all the work for you?
No wonder the Palestinians are allergic to it.
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The Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs has named four senior leaders in diplomacy to be Fisher Family Fellows for the 2020-21 academic year: Julie Bishop, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party; Saeb Erakat, the Chief Palestinian Negotiator and Head of the Negotiations Affairs Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO); Federica Mogherini, former High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission; and Peter Wittig, former Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United States.
“We are proud to welcome these four respected global leaders to the Harvard Kennedy School for this academic year. They will strengthen our capacity to learn the lessons of effective diplomacy and statecraft,” said Faculty Chair Nicholas Burns.
The Fellows will speak in virtual seminars in the autumn, hold office hours with students to help foster their professional development and networks, and participate in research initiatives. Public health conditions permitting, the Fellows will visit campus in spring 2021 to lead study groups for Harvard students on topics of their expertise, including on transatlantic relations; the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and emerging foreign policy and security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region…..
Saeb Erakat has been extensively involved in all negotiations with Israel, including those conducted at Camp David (2000) and in Taba (2001). In 1991, he was the Vice-Chair of the Madrid Peace Delegation and was later the Vice-Chair at the Washington negotiations of 1992. Previously, he served as the Minister of Local Government for the Palestinian National Authority and is also Head of the Palestinian Side of the Steering and Monitoring Committee. He is the author of fourteen books on foreign policy, oil, conflict resolution, and negotiations.
What diplomatic victory has Erakat ever achieved? He has been instrumental in painting the Palestinians into a corner, stopping dealing with Israel even after “annexation” is off the table, which only hurts his own people.
His brilliant diplomacy skills have succeeded in turning much of the Arab world from being pro-Palestinian to lukewarm or hostile.
Erakat is not at all a “respected global leader.” He is a failure at everything he has ever done.
Why would Harvard hire a proven, serial liar, a failed negotiator and politician who has never helped his own people in the slightest way, and who is not really even popular among Palestinians, to teach its students?
A most interesting tweet from PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We should respect the national symbols of the UAE. The UAE flag is a national symbol that must be respected and honoured , so should other Emirates national symbols . <a href="https://t.co/OITcIjTdQS">https://t.co/OITcIjTdQS</a></p>— Dr. Saeb Erakat الدكتور صائب عريقات (@ErakatSaeb) <a href="https://twitter.com/ErakatSaeb/status/1296071978328227841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
If national symbols must be respected, then Israel’s flag must not be burned by Palestinians – but that happens every day and Erekat remains silent.
So it must be that Erekat does not consider Israel to be a nation.
Palestinians said a man shot and killed by Israeli forces during an alleged car-ramming attempt was actually rushing to pick up his sister and mother ahead of a family wedding later Tuesday evening, accusing Israel of executing him in cold blood.
Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said his cousin, Ahmad Moustafa Erakat, was only rushing when Border Police shot him dead at the “Container” checkpoint in the neighborhood of Abu Dis, north of Bethlehem. Erekat rejected the Israeli account that the 28-year-old victim had attempted to run over a female officer in an attempt to commit a terror attack.
“My cousin, the nephew of my wife, was executed, murdered in cold blood and Netanyahu bears responsibility,” Erekat was separately quoted as having told the Kan public broadcaster.
According to Border Police, the younger Erekat was speeding when he arrived at a checkpoint at the entrance of Abu Dis. When an officer flagged him to halt, the driver veered toward her and slammed into the checkpoint tower. He subsequently got out of the vehicle and advanced toward forces who opened fire and killed him.
The Border Police have not yet released the video of the incident* (see below) which could clear up a lot. But a video has surfaced, from Ahmad’s phone, that appears to show that he was depressed and fighting some sort of accusations against him of collaborating with Israel, and that he had shamed his family:
The audio is unclear, but Shimrit Meir, who broke this story, says that he is saying, “Your brother is not a spy, I have never betrayed my homeland. I didn’t look at other men’s girls; ever since I got to know that girl, I didn’t know any secret of hers nor she of mine…Look at the situation I am in, I started telling things….I brought shame on my parents, and myself. …What happened to me has to do only with my fear and the thing that they put in my drink, and nothing else.”
I verified that this is consistent with what other Arabic speakers can understand from the video.
UPDATE 1: Meir says there was another similar video on his phone as well, where he spoke about the Shin Bet trying to recruit him, his saying some names to them, and something about his photo on the COGAT page, which may be what shamed him.
The part that Erekat says about shame, together with his exiting the car after the crash and approaching the border police, strongly indicates that Ahmad was intending “suicide by cop.”
The shirt in the video seems to be the same one he was wearing when he was shot, which means that this video might have been made only minutes before the attack. (I don’t know the provenance of this photo.)
It seems possible that Ahmad was the target of a “honeytrap” where an Israeli poses as an Arab girl and strikes up a friendship to get information, and the family suspected.
The family claims that Ahmad was engaged to be married next month. Perhaps Erekat was also pressured to become engaged to a girl he did not want.
There are still questions to be sure, and the Erekat family is also accusing Israel of allowing him to die without giving him medical attention – there is one video showing him still moving while a border police officer walks near him. Without knowing more, it appears that more could have been done to save his life.
But the video from the car strongly indicates that Ahmad Erekat fully intended to die and to erase his shame for some incident with a girl.
(h/t Yisrael Medad and Ibn Boutros)
UPDATE 2: Video of the incident shows what can only be a deliberate car ramming attempt.
Saeb Erekat, Secretary-General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said Israel has responded to Palestinian request to cooperate in fighting the coronavirus pandemic with incursions, killings and demolitions.
This is absurd and libelous. While Israel continues to enforce the law in Area C - as it must under international law - it has been cooperating with the PA, and even the UN praised their cooperation.
Saeb Erekat is a liar.
He said that Israel arrested Palestinian leaders in Jerusalem for carrying out work to implement health and awareness measures to stop the spread of the epidemic in the occupied city, and these leaders were prevented from carrying out their duties and responsibilities in protecting the residents of Jerusalem.
“What do you expect from a prime minister who arrests a minister, a governor and a member of the Executive Committee or a security officer for distributing food parcels in Jerusalem,” he said.
The second paragraph explains the first. The PA was trying to show it has sovereignty over Jerusalem so it sent its officials to "distribute food parcels" and to "sanitize" Jerusalem's gates. it was a cynical attempt to use the pandemic to act as if they control Jerusalem, and they intended to have their people get arrested so they can claim the evil Jews are stopping their valiant attempts to stop the spread of the virus.
Saeb Erekat is a liar.
“Even aid to the Palestinian people from abroad, either Israel takes half of it or confiscates it.”
Usually, Erekat at least pretends to have a factoid to hang his lies on. This is just an outright fabrication. I have heard and seen nothing about this accusation, and on the contrary, Israel has loaned the Palestinian Authority a half billion shekels because of its tax revenue shortfalls from the pandemic - and Israel doesn't expect them to ever repay the loan.
Saeb Erekat is a liar.
He said that Israel did not respond or heed demands for the release of the Palestinian prisoners as stated in international conventions at a time of an outbreak of disease.
There are no international conventions that say Israel must release prisoners. The UN Human Rights head called on countries to release political prisoners to help stem the spread of the disease in crowded prisons, but she did not refer to any international law or convention.
Saeb Erekat is a habitual, unrepentant, professional liar.
And yet the international news media still treats him with respect, as if everything that comes out of his mouth isn't lies and propaganda.
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There has been an interesting clash in the media between Jared Kushner and Saeb Erekat that, when analyzed, shows that Kushner is right.
Kushner went on Arab MBCTV to defend the plan. As usual, no one can argue with what he says so they are upset over his tone which they claim is condescending. This interview does not sound condescending to me:
During the interview Kushner also slammed Erekat for being part of the problem:
"He says a lot of things that have turned out not to be true," Kushner told Egyptian journalist Amr Adib on MBC Masr's Al Hikaya political program. "The guy has a perfect track record at failing at making peace deals."
Kushner riled up Erekat and anti-Israel activists last week when he said, accurately, that Palestinians like Erekat have screwed up every previous opportunity for peace:
Jared Kushner, senior adviser to the President, says the White House's Middle East plan is "a great deal" and if Palestinians reject it, “they’re going to screw up another opportunity, like they’ve screwed up every other opportunity that they’ve ever had in their existence.” pic.twitter.com/ABAI3gKjig
It is because of people like you who want to dictate rather than negotiate and who they thought could impose an apartheid Netanyahu plan on the Palestinian people forever. Ending the occupation, two states on the 1967 borders, otherwise is failure.
“I heard Olmert say that he offered 100% of the West Bank territory. This is true. I’ll testify to this. He [Olmert] presented a map [to Abbas], and said: ‘I want [Israel] to take 6.5% of the West Bank and I’ll give [the PA] 6.5% of the 1948 territory (i.e., land in Israel) in return.’ [Olmert] said to Abbas: ‘The area of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on the eve of June 4, 1967, was 6,235 sq. km. [I said to Abbas]: ‘There are 50 sq. km. of no man’s land in Jerusalem and Latrun.’ We’ll split them between us, so the territory will be 6,260 sq. km.” [I said to Abbas:] Olmert wants to give you 20 sq. km. more, so that you could say [to Palestinians]: ‘I got more than the 1967 territories.’ Regarding Jerusalem, [Olmert said]: ‘What’s Arab is Arab, and what’s Jewish is Jewish, and we’ll keep it an open city.’ Regarding the refugees, [Olmert] offered him [Abbas] 150,000 refugees … [Olmert] said: “The refugees’ right to return to the State of Palestine is your law. But regarding Israel, we will accept 150,000 refugees over 10 years. 15,000 [per year] over 10 years.”
So by denouncing all previous plans - which is in fact what many "pro-Palestinian" activists are doing in response to Kushner's CNN interview - Erekat is saying that his opposition isn't to Trump's plan but to every single previous plan as well for not going far enough.
The only possible interpretation is that Abbas' demands in 2008 were a lie, and he wanted to paint Olmert into a corner, not thinking he would (stupidly) agree to every demand for land and Israel taking responsibility for 1948 refugees and splitting Jerusalem. Abbas didn't want to end his claims on all of Israel down the line; he didn't want to stop at 150,000 Arabs "returning" - he didn't want to agree to anything that would leave Israel strong and viable.
Kushner is accurately pointing out that if Palestinians want a state, they can have one. In this plan, he notes, all the checkpoints will be gone - a Palestinian can travel through the entire state without seeing a single Israeli. Any Arab that wants to pray at Al Aqsa can do so. Details that were never dreamed of in previous plans are considered with the welfare of average Palestinians in the forefront of its philosophy.
Erekat's fuming response is, essentially, that nothing less than full Israeli surrender to the demands of those who claim they have nothing is acceptable - and that includes "return" to destroy the Jewish state. He is showing that his problem is not with Trump but with all previous plans, which fulfilled every ostensible Palestinian demand.
Erekat's words show that Palestinian leaders were never serious about peace or an independent state.And the Palestinian people are the ones who lose out because of the egos of Erekat and Abbas and all the rest.
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At first glance, this greeting for the Jewish New Year by PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat seems to be a nice gesture:
On the Eve of the Jewish New Year Nemah and I would like to extend our best wishes for a happy , peaceful and good year for all those who follow the Jewish faith , and a happy and good year for all .
Recognizing the Jewish state implies recognition of a Jewish people and recognition of its right to self-determination. Those who assert this right also assert that the territory historically associated with this right of self-determination (i.e., the self-determination unit) is all of Historic Palestine. Therefore, recognition of the Jewish people and their right of self-determination may lend credence to the Jewish people’s claim to all of Historic Palestine.
According to the PLO, Judaism is merely a religion, because to admit the truth that Jews are a people implies that Jews have a right to a land like all other peoples - and the Jewish claim to their land predates the Arab claim, making it stronger than the flimsy Palestinian claim as a recently created "people."
Denying that the Jews are a people is antisemitic.
So even something meant to be as innocent as a greeting to Jews is a subtle attempt to deny Jews their historic connection to the land, a connection that is mentioned countless times in the high holiday prayers.
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It shows a church and the iconic Dome of the Rock - but nothing Jewish.
It turns out that to take a shot like this, avoiding any Jewish historical sites, is not easy.
The church is the Church of Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives, of course, is a graveyard for tens of thousands of Jews, and Erekat would not want the world to see that.
The two domes are half a kilometer away from each other. It is difficult to frame a photo where they are comparable in size - it must have been taken from a great distance behind the church. Here's how big the Dome is from a Google Streetview shot from next to the church.
To be sure, some professional photographers have managed to get similar shots, because it is dramatic to juxtapose the two domes. But Erakat didn't choose his photo for its aesthetic qualities - he has specifically looked for and chosen a shot that makes Jerusalem look Arab Christian and Arab Muslim, with the deliberate aim of erasing Jerusalem's Jewish character altogether.
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The double standards of the world are quite obvious when one compares what would be a career-ending gaffe by any Western politician to what mainstream, respected and "moderate" Palestinian politicians say all the time.
As we've seen, Bassam al-Sayeh was involved in the murder of a rabbi and his wife, in front of their children. (And Israel provided him with excellent medical care.)
This murderous subhuman is indeed a hero to Palestinians.
Erekat is supposedly a "moderate." He goes on TV often. He writes op-eds for major newspapers.
Yet no reporter calls him on his direct and explicit support for terror as seen here. No diplomat condemns his statements of support for a murderer.
An Israeli politician who would publicly praise a murderer would be vilified worldwide. He or she would be barred from entering most Western countries.
The baseline for how Palestinians are expected to act are slightly above that of animals. And they live up to their expectations.
Yet the desire of finding a "moderate" lover of terrorists is so great that someone like Saeb Erekat and Hanan Ashrawi can say and support the most disgusting, sickening positions and not worry a bit about any repercussions - the media and world politicians need them to prove the narrative that both sides are equally moral and equally guilty.
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You won't find these photos on J-Street's Twitter account, but the PLO is very proud to have met with a delegation of Congressional aides who visited under the auspices of J-Street.
Saeb Erekat told these aides that Israel is entirely at fault for there being no peace in the region and that the PLO desires a two-state solution.
On the same PLO page header, you can see its logo, which shows exactly how interested the PLO is in a two-state solution.
I doubt any of the delegation bothered asking about that.
Similarly, today, the website of the PLO's Department of Public Diplomacy and Policy includes explicitly antisemitic content. It features this description of Jews (archived here) in a page dedicated to the major Zionists that they blame for the "Naqba" with antisemitic Quranic allusions:
انهم علو في الارض يذبحون ابناءنا ويستحيون نسائنا وما كيد يهود الا في ضلال ،الاجرام صفتهم والقتل لغتهم وهدم البيوت عرفهم وقلع الاشجار عادتهم، شخصيات يهود تجسد الاجرام والعتو ،لكن في هذه البوابة سنعرفهم عن قرب.
They acted with arrogance on earth, slaughtering our sons and leaving our women alive, and the plotting of the Jews is just delusions. Crime is their quality/attribute, killing is their language, destroying homes is their custom, uprooting trees is their habit. Jewish personalities epitomize crime and arrogance, but in this web portal we will get to know them from up close.
Is this anomalous? Of course not. Official Palestinian TV, effectively run by the PLO, has dozens of examples of explicit antisemitism - often from PLO leaders themselves - every year.
The Fatah platform of 2009 remains in force, and it says that terrorism ("armed struggle") is their right, never abandoned and allowed, they claim, under international law. It also explicitly says it wants "preserve the refugee camps as a political witness" even on its own territory, a conscious decision to keep their own people miserable as political capital against Israel.
J-Street would never mention these facts. In fact, it would do everything it could to hide it.
J-Street pretends to be even-handed in these sorts of trips. They probably had the aides visit some dovish Israeli MKs. But their website, words and actions prove that they will bend over backwards to believe every lie the Palestinian leaders say and to be critical of every word the Israeli government says. There is nothing remotely balanced about them, and the congressional aides who attended these sessions weren't learning anything but curated anti-Israel propaganda.
(h/t Ibn Boutros)
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Hyperbole from Palestinian officials is a given, but this one seems to be a new record.
In Elkana, Bibi Netanyahu made a vague campaign promise:
Israel will apply sovereignty to all West Bank settlements, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday morning as he celebrated the first day of school with first graders in the Elkana settlement.
"There won't be any more uprooting [of settlements]," Netanyahu said. "With God's help, we'll apply Jewish sovereignty on all the settlements, as part of the land of Israel and as part of the State of Israel."
He's said this before, also in context of a political campaign. No timeframe or details are given.
Erekat considered that Netanyahu's public statement of annexation of all settlements on the West Bank posed not only a threat to the Palestinian people but a threat to the entire international system. And it would open the horizons in alliance with the Trump administration to completely overthrow the international system and create a system of power and hegemony.
Locusts and pestilence can't be far behind.
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A senior Palestinian official Monday condemned the participation of US envoys in the unveiling of an archaeological site in East Jerusalem and scoffed at the “fake” account of Jewish history attributed to the subterranean road.
Saeb Erekat said he believed the tunnel was a project being used by Israeli right-wingers to further Israel’s claim on East Jerusalem and advance settlement growth there.
“It has nothing to do with religion, it is fake,” he told journalists at his office in Ramallah in the West Bank.
He cited reports by two Israeli NGOs questioning the archaeological methods used.
One of the organizations, Peace Now, also says cracks emerged in multiple houses in Silwan after the digging began.
Erekat said: “It’s a settlement project. It’s based on a lie that has nothing to do with history."
This is a person regarded as a "moderate." This is a person that was a lead negotiator for, ahem, "peace."
And this is a person who is actually more reasonable than most other Palestinian leaders!
"Questioning archaeological methods" does not mean that the road discovered that leads up to the Temple Mount is not real. It was clearly used by hundreds of thousands of Jewish pilgrims to visit the Second Temple. No archaeologist in the world denies this.
But Saeb Erekat does.
Which means that (yet again) Erekat is proven to be a liar. You literally cannot believe a word he says.
The Western media, unfortunately, doesn't hold him to the same standards that any Western politician would be held to when they are shown to be knowingly lying. On the contrary, they are eager to interview him. The Forward published an op-ed from this liar just this week (claiming that the US supports "Greater Israel" based on the Bahrain workshop that didn't talk about politics or borders at all.)
A number of years ago, Erekat issued a quote referring to Israel's prime minister, with a saying I never heard and couldn't find anywhere else. Perhaps it is an Arabic saying, but it is clearly Saeb Erakat's personal motto:
“There’s a saying that if you don’t stop a man who is lying after 24 hours, the lies turn into facts."
"How many civilians must be killed to speak of a massacre?" asked Mr Erakat. "The Israeli massacre in Jenin's refugee camp clearly happened and this is a war crime and crimes against humanity also took place".
Mr Erakat had accused Israel during the battle of killing up to 500 people in Jenin, a figure the UN report dismissed, saying 52 Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers died in the fighting.
"The UN should have used the word "massacre" or "war crime", especially because the Jenin's camp is managed by the UN," Erakat said.
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الدكتور صائب عريقات ( هذا الشخص كوشنير لا يكترث للفلسطينين . وقد عزل نفسه عن أي دور فى عملية السلام . مرة اخرى أدعو الأشقاء العرب لعدم الحديث مع هذه الفرقة من المستوطنين ( كوشنير ، جرين بلات وفريدمان )ما يخططون له هو الازدهار للمستوطينين. https://t.co/cs0UmTNfrM
— Dr. Saeb Erakat الدكتور صائب عريقات (@ErakatSaeb) June 3, 2019
This person Kushner does not care about the Palestinians. He has isolated himself from any role in the peace process. Once again, I call on the Arab brothers not to talk to this group of settlers (Kushner, Greenblatt and Friedman) for what they are planning is prosperity for the settlers.
He tweeted it in English many hours later:
This person (Kushner)is very much indifferent about palestinians.He has disqualified himself from any role in the peace making .Once again I call upon Arabs not to talk to these settlers (kushner, Greenblatt, Freedman )about peace.They are planning prosperity for the settlers? pic.twitter.com/2y9yS6lebL
— Dr. Saeb Erakat الدكتور صائب عريقات (@ErakatSaeb) June 3, 2019
Apparently, Erakat believes that any religious Zionist is a settler, no matter what country they live in.
Given that the word "settler" is essentially a curse word to him, this is pretty much antisemitism.
This is common among Palestinians. For example, they routinely say that Jews who visit the Temple Mount are "settlers," even though many of them aren't, or are even Americans.
Erekat points to an interesting excerpt of an interview with Kushner on HBO, where Kushner pretty much says that the plan is to separate the Palestinian people from their leadership.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
For the anniversary of Israel's membership in the UN, the foreign ministry of Germany sent this message:
Seventy years ago today, on 11 May 1949, Israel was admitted to the UN as a full member. That’s a whole human life ago. On this occasion, the Federal Government would like to reiterate once again today in New York that Germany stands, also in the UN, shoulder to shoulder with Israel, whose security and right to exist must never be called into question by anyone anywhere.
Nevertheless, Israel is still being denounced, treated in a biased manner and marginalised inappropriately in UN bodies to this day. This state of affairs is painful and unsatisfactory, and especially since the UN is at the heart of the multilateral, rules-based order and vital to international security and peace.
We will continue, including as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, to support Israel’s legitimate interests, to help strengthen its representation in the UN and to do our utmost to oppose any attempt to isolate or delegitimise Israel.
The PLO's Saeb Erekat was not happy that Germany pointed out the bias that the UN has against Israel.
Erekat claimed that Israel's membership to the UN was conditional on the implementation of the Charter of the United Nations, accepting the "right of return" for Palestinians.
Having received the report of the Security Council on the application of Israel for membership in the United Nations,
Noting that, in the judgment of the Security Council, Israel is a peace-loving State and is able and willing to carry out the obligations contained in the Charter,
Noting that the Security Council has recommended to the general Assembly that it admit Israel to membership in the United Nations,
Noting furthermore the declaration by the State of Israel that it "unreservedly accepts the obligations of the United Nations Charter and undertakes to honour them from the day when it becomes a member of the United Nations,"
Recalling its resolutions of 29 November 1947 and 11 December 1948 and taking note of the declarations and explanations made by the representative of the Government of Israel before the Ad Hoc Political Committee in respect of the implementation of the said resolutions,
The General Assembly,
Acting in discharge of its functions under Article 4 of the Charter and rule 125 of its rules of procedure,
1. Decides that Israel is a peace loving State which accepts the obligations contained in the Charter and is able and willing to carry out those obligations;
2. Decides to admit Israel to membership in the United Nations.
While the resolution "recalls" UNGA 181 and 194 there is no conditional language in this resolution at all. The actionable part of the resolution is unambiguous. Beyond that, the preamble explicitly notes that Israel clarified - at length - its interpretation of those resolutions in a number of now obscure UN documents (here and here, among others.) Abba Eban was, as usual, masterful in explaining Israel's position, and his explanation is referred to in this resolution just as the UNGA resolutions are. The language of the resolution seems to accept Eban's words as being just as important as the texts of the earlier resolutions themselves.
Erekat is lying to the government of Germany.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Protests by the Palestinians in Lebanon are unlikely to draw any attention from the international community, including so-called pro-Palestinian groups that are active especially on university campuses in the US and Canada, among other places.
The real "pro-Palestinian" groups are those who are willing to raise their voices against the mistreatment of Palestinians at the hands of their Arab brothers. The real "pro-Palestinian" groups are those who are prepared to defend the rights of women and gays living under Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The real "pro-Palestinian" groups are those that are prepared to advocate for democracy and free speech for Palestinians living under the repressive regimes of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The real "pro-Palestinian" groups are those who are prepared to condemn Lebanon for its racist and discriminatory measures against Palestinians, living and dead.
Hiding at a university campus and spewing hatred against Israel does not make one "pro-Palestinian." Rather, it makes one just an Israel-hater. Will the "pro-Palestinian" groups listen to the urgent messages coming from the people in Lebanon they claim to represent?
The upcoming Israeli elections will give Israelis the chance to vote on the future direction Israel’s new government should take in resolving the future of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and Gaza (“disputed territories”) – the last remaining 5 per cent of the territory of the Mandate for Palestine where sovereignty still remains unallocated between Arabs and Jews.
The choices offered to Israeli voters should be explicitly spelt out by the political parties contesting the elections. The newly-elected government’s stated policy should be implemented. This basic premise of democracy has been undermined in America as Trump’s election commitment to build his promised border wall remains unfulfilled because of Congress’s opposition.
Trump should not similarly attempt to thwart the mandate of Israel’s next government.
Trump should shelve his long-overdue ultimate deal indefinitely – due to the changed circumstances that have demonstrably arisen since his well-intentioned thought bubble in November 2016.
Instead – Trump should:
Pledge his Government’s full support for Israel’s next duly elected Government
Reaffirm the core commitments made by President Bush to Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Bush’s letter dated 14 April 2004 – endorsed overwhelmingly by the Congress by 502 votes to 12 (“Bush/Congress Commitments”).
Those core American commitments – made to procure Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza – included:
Opposing any peace plan other than the 2003 Bush Roadmap
Being strongly committed to Israel’s security and well-being as a Jewish state.
Not supporting any right of return by Palestinian refugees to Israel
Regarding as unrealistic a full and complete withdrawal from the disputed territories.
Congress could endorse this Trump initiative – reinforcing continuing bipartisan support for Israel.
Peace will remain elusive – but Trump will have saved himself from drowning in a cesspool that has swallowed previous American presidents who believed they had the answer to ending this unresolved 100 years old conflict.
As readers will recall, I have, for years, been urging the initiation of a largescale initiative for the incentivized emigration of the Arab population in Judea-Samaria and Gaza, as the only viable policy option that can facilitate (albeit not ensure) the continued survival of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people—as it is, demonstrably, the only policy option that allows Israel to adequately contend with the geographic and demographic imperatives required for such survival.
This week, I encountered strident—albeit somewhat doleful, and certainly unintended—support for my thesis from a rather unexpected source—the well-known historian, Benny Morris.
Morris: Coming full circle?
Once a member of the so-called New Historians, a radical, left-wing group of academics, who challenged the traditional Zionist view of the inception of Israel—particularly the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Arabs due to the fighting during the 1948 War of Independence—Morris has come to adopt a far more understanding view of the alternatives facing the then-nascent Jewish state—and its resultant actions.
Indeed, in many respects Morris has come “full circle”—at least in terms of prevailing public perceptions of his political positions. Once denounced as an anti-Zionist, considered too radical for employment in the Israeli academe, and who was imprisoned, rather than serve as an army reservist in the “occupied territories”, he now not only defends, but endorses, the coercive displacement of Arabs—indeed, even lamenting that it was not sufficiently implemented.
In this regard, he has chided Ben Gurion for being overly reticent: In a 2004 interview with Haaretz’s Ari Shavit, he declared provocatively: "If he was already engaged in expulsion, maybe he should have done a complete job…my feeling is that this place would be quieter and know less suffering if the matter had been resolved once and for all.”
Morris speculates: “If Ben-Gurion had carried out a large expulsion --the whole Land of Israel, as far as the Jordan River. It may yet turn out that this was his fatal mistake. If he had carried out a full expulsion - rather than a partial one - he would have stabilized the State of Israel for generations."
By Alan Kotok from Arlington, VA, USA (Saeb Erekat) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Chief PA peace negotiator and Secretary General of the PLO
executive committee Saeb Erekat underwent a successful lung
transplant in northern Virginia on Friday. There is no doubt that Erekat
needed that lung. He was in such bad shape from pulmonary fibrosis that he was
on oxygen and could no longer walk.
Erekat was diagnosed some five years ago and had been
receiving treatment in Israel. There isn't any decent hospital in PA or Hamas
administered territories where he might have been treated or received a
transplant because the Arabs use much of their considerable foreign aid on things
like schoolbooks that teach their children to kill Jews; stipends to Jew-murdering
terrorists and their families; and terror tunnels used to infiltrate Israeli
territory in order to kill Jews and for transporting items to be used to kill
Jews. That is, instead of spending that aid on building hospitals and providing decent medical care to their people.
Once the doctors determined that Erekat needed a lung
transplant or it was goombye Saeb, he didn't have much choice but to look
elsewhere for a transplant. According to Israeli policy, non-Israeli
citizens can't be placed on the transplant list. They can be considered only
after it is decided that a donated organ is not suitable for any of the Israeli citizen
on the waiting list. Note that an Israeli Arab would have the same chance as an
Israeli Jew in being considered for an organ transplant.
It's not that Erekat is an Arab or a Muslim, it's that he's
not a citizen of Israel.
Eighty-nine Israelis are on the waiting list for a lung
transplant, said Dr. Tamar Ashkenazi, director of the transplant center at
Israel’s Ministry of Health. Last year, 50 patients received donated lungs.
Ashkenazi said that in the event an available organ has no
match in Israel, she will reach out to the deceased’s family and request
special permission, above and beyond the legal necessity, to offer the organ to
foreigners. Under similar circumstances, she once sent a child’s liver to Germany.
Erekat, who is of average height, suffers yet another
disadvantage.
“I have no idea why, but we have many tall donors here,”
Ashkenazi said, noting that height is a crucial factor for matching lungs. “A
tall patient might wait two weeks, and a shorter person can wait two years.”
The New
York Times quotes David Bitan, Israeli coalition whip for the Likud
Party: “I am for humanitarian aid, but there is a problem with lung
transplants. We can barely manage lung transplants for the citizens of the
State of Israel.”
Israel National
Newsmakes it clear that the list for organ transplant is ordered according
to medical criteria, quoting a joint Facebook statement from Israel's Ministry
of health and its National Transplant Center:
"In cases where no
Israeli patient is found to receive the organ, it is possible to transplant the
donated organ to a non-resident of Israel, subject to the consent of the
donor's family, in coordination with the transplant center. Such cases are
extremely rare.”
It makes sense then, that
Erekat decided to do what needed to be done to get on the waiting list for a
lung Stateside. It is also interesting that he received a lung in the States within
two short months of us reading about his need for a transplant. As of October
12, there were 1,374 people on the U.S. wait list for a lung.
There are 58 local donor service areas and 11 UNOS
regions that are used for U.S. organ allocation. Hearts and lungs have less
time to be transplanted, so we use a radius from the donor hospital instead of
regions when allocating those organs.
The website also helpfully tells us how long each organ remains viable for transplantation after donation:
In other words, you have to be close by to move to the top
of the waiting list to get a lung, because you've got, at most, 6 hours to get that
transplant. You have to be close to the donor hospital.
At the same time, the UNOS website
tells visitors that there's no preferential treatment involved in rising to the
top of the transplant list:
Only medical and logistical factors are used in organ
matching. Personal or social characteristics such as celebrity status, income
or insurance coverage play no role in transplant priority.
Before he got so sick, Erekat
was often interviewed by the Western media. He used these opportunities to
accuse Israel of state-sponsored apartheid, genocide, and war crimes. In 2014, for
example, he told Galei Tzahal (IDF Radio) that the Israeli response to the
kidnapping and brutal murder of three Israeli teenagers followed by scores of
rocket attacks on Israeli towns, constituted "genocide."
"96% of those killed in the (Gaza) Strip were civilians,
and tens of thousands of homes were destroyed. I know Israelis protest against
the use of the term 'genocide,' but that's the reality on the ground."
Never mind that Hamas was using human shields, placing rocket launchers in, for instance, homes and nursery schools.
In 2013, Erekat
accused Israel of apartheid. "Today in the West Bank, including East
Jerusalem ... I can sum up the situation with one word—apartheid. Worse than
that which existed in South Africa. Today Israel justifies its apartheid by the
term security."
Arabs free to be with Jews at this event held in "apartheid" Jerusalem
photo credit: The Real Jerusalem Streets
Referring to his hopes for John Kerry's (doomed-to-failure) mediation
efforts and for statehood, Erekat said, "we are going deeper into the evil
apartheid that exists in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.”
Why does any of this matter now? According to Arab Israeli
journalist Khaled Abu Toameh, Saeb Erekat is a frontrunner to replace Abbas on
retirement. From the same LA Times article cited above,
“In recent years his position has gotten a lot stronger,”
Abu Toameh said. “He’s become the leading candidate to replace Abu Mazen,”
another name for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, 82. “Among
Palestinians he is considered the most prominent symbol of the Oslo process,
and he’s taken a lot of flak for being the flag bearer of ongoing negotiations
and contacts with Israel.”
Saeb Erekat has been saved from an untimely death. Whether
the short waiting time for a lung was coincidence, luck, or something else, it's impossible
to say. But having earned a second chance at life, Erekat may end up making a return to
the political stage, as well.
Hat tip to reader Evan Parke for planting the seed and for research
help.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
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Elder of Ziyon
