Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

SA CEO responds to critics for selling Israeli products, Muslims seethe

From IOL News (South Africa):

Ivan Saltzman, the chief executive of pharmacy giant Dis-Chem, is embroiled in an ugly spat with a Durban woman over the retailer’s decision to sell Israeli-made skin care products.

The spat began when Fathima Moosa visited the Westwood Mall branch of Dischem and noticed that they were selling Dead Sea products made in Israel.

She later submitted an online letter of complaint, asking them to remove the products on the basis that Israel’s “human rights violations replicate Hitler’s Nazism”.

After Dis-Chem’s initial response that the products were not going to be removed, Moosa demanded that her e-mail be forwarded to top management.

Twenty days later, Saltzman responded to her personally, telling her that likening Israel’s supposed human rights violations was a “a scurrilous slur that you have clearly chosen to employ in order to give maximum offence”.

The spat which has since seen the Islamic Media Review Network get involved with an open letter to Saltzman now threatens to turn into boycott of Dis-Chem by pro-Palestinian groups in SA.

Moosa's original email to the website stated:

i visited your store in westwood mall, durban, and noticed that you stock products from Israel. as a south african who lived under oppression, i was very upset to see that your store imports products from a country whose human rights violations replicate hitler's nazism. please consider removing israeli products from your shelves.

Dear Fathima

Thank you for contacting us. I have brought this matter to the attention of one of our Directors who has advised that we will not consider removing the Israeli products from Dis-Chem stores.

Kind regards

Dawn de Klerk

Moosa responded:

Hi

I am very disappointed by your response.

Please forward this mail to your director, whom I believe is a caring individual. ( I am formerly from Pretoria, and I know that he does a lot of charity).

It is very easy for us to rise to the defense of those who are from our brethren, but the nobler response is to do what's right, even if its the unpopular choice.

The jews of many organisations nationally and internationally have nobly and amazingly distanced themselves from the israeli regime, and have been at the forefront of the call for sanctions against Israel, because of their racist and inhumane policies.

Please google, "nkusa", "young jewish and proud", "rabbis against Israel", Ronnie Kasrils: "not in my name".

Among all these voices, are Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and many Israeli MPs who urge the world to end the madness.

I hope and trust that your good judgement and commitment to the values enshrined in the Torah, allow you to make the right decision.

Happy is the man who renounces everything that puts a strain on his conscience.

After all, we are all the children of Abraham.

Thank you

Fathima Moosa

And here is CEO Ivan Saltzman's unapolgetic response:

Dear Fatima Moosa

I will begin by answering your likening Israel’s supposed human rights violations to Hitler’s Nazism, a scurrilous slur that you have clear chosen to employ in order to give maximum offense. I think you well know that the crimes of the Nazi regime involved the deliberate mass murder of millions of civilians, largely Jews, as a matter of planned policy. Is this really what Israel is doing. Obviously not – in fact it does completely the opposite. Israel goes to extraordinary lengths to minimize civilian casualties and has been extremely successful in this regard. Palestinian (or for that matter Lebanese) casualties have been a tiny fraction of what they would have been if Israel had truly adopted a Nazi-like extermination policy, given the massive military capability it has at its disposal.

In fact, it is very easy to identify the true modern-day Nazis in the Middle East. They are found in the ranks of such murderous extremist groupings as Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestine Islamic Jihad (amongst others), all of which regard the mass murder of Israeli Jews as the noblest goal their followers can aspire to. Have you ever thought what the consequences would be if Israel were to adopt the same kind of tactics against the Palestinian population? Mass slaughter would indeed ensue, but fortunately Israel, no matter what the provocation, has not nor will not ever stoop to such depths.

So far as your stated intention of boycotting Dis-Chem goes, that is obviously your decision. After all, we do live in a free country. However, if it is your intention to boycott Israeli products, you need to be consistent If your gesture is to have any meaning. I hope you don’t use an intel chip in your computer with which you probably wrote your e-mail because it was invented in Israel. I hope that you stay in good health because if you need preventative surgery against a heart attack, you will have to boycott the procedure because guess what? The stent was invented in Israel! Likewise, I hope you are never prescribed any patch for diabetes, to deliver medication and other drugs. If you are an asthmatic you may have to use a new type of inhaler (Spin) invented in Israel. So please check! Israel has given the world the system of drip irrigation which is being widely adopted in South Africa with water shortages like many countries. Should you boycott all fruit and vegetables grown by this method. The list that Israel has given the world is very lengthy. Check very carefully what you boycott.

You may not have noticed the crisis in the Arab world, “Arab Spring” which now is in Winter with no end in sight. To the best of my knowledge this over human rights but then I have an HD TV which you are probably boycotting. The cheapness of life in Somalia and Sudan is perpetrated by people who you are strongly affiliated to. You obviously don’t know what the racism of Hitler differs very little to Israel’s enemies. Both want the destruction of the Jewish people.

I believe I had to answer your “complaint”. I will continue to sell Dead Sea products from Israel. You know the Dead Sea has two shores. I wonder why the Jordanians or Palestinians (most come from Jordan) do not want to share this wonderful natural resource of the Dead Sea.

I will not respond to any further correspondence on your subject.

Yours faithfully

IVAN SALTZMAN | CHIEF EXCECUTIVE OFFICER
23 Stag Rd, Allandale, Midrand, South Africa
(011) 589-2208
ivan@dischem.co.za

A Muslim organization in South Africa, Media Review Network, responds with a lengthy letter that actually defends Moosa's characterization of Israel as engaging in Nazi-like behavior.

Unsurprisingly, MRN explicitly supports Hamas and terrorism against Israelis (saying the Shalit prisoner swap "vindicates any and all resistance options to oppression must be employed against the brutal Zionist occupation of their lands.")

(h/t Gidon)

The PLO's US envoy lies in the WaPo

From the Washington Post, an op-ed by US PLO representative Maen Rashid Areikat.

Areikat has said more than once that his organization intends to ethnically cleanse a half million people from their homes.

Here he takes on the idea that "Palestinians" are an invented nation, with a suite of lies:

The issue of Palestinian identity and national history has become a source of controversy, with many Americans making deeply disturbing and alarming statements. As the representative of my people to the United States, I would like to tell you what the Palestinians, as a people, are all about.

We go far back, much further than those doubting our existence can remember. Jericho, my home town, goes as far back as 10,000 B.C., making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. .... We lived under the rule of a plethora of empires: the Canaanites, Egyptians, Philistines, Israelites, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, Mongols, Ottomans and, finally, the British. This has made our region rich in history, culture and heritage. Indeed, if our olive trees could speak — some are centuries old — they would have a lot to say.

This makes us very proud and appreciative of our special place in this world. That is why we are so attached to our land and to our identity.... Centuries of rule by an eclectic assortment have taught us that empires come and go but legacies and values remain. ... The fact that we outlived these empires is a testament to our resilience and strength.

Areikat is making the claim that today's Palestinian Arabs are descended from the people who lived in the same area thousands of years ago.

Yet in his next paragraph he says:

Yes, as presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said recently, we are also Arabs, the Arabs of the Holy Land. Infused with a mix of attributes from the civilizations that passed by, we are Arabs with black, brown and white skin, dark- and light-colored eyes, and the whole gamut of hair types.

The Arab conquest of Palestine occurred in the seventh century. While there was no doubt some intermixing of the Arab invaders with the existing population, it is contradictory to claim both that Palestinians are descended from the people who lived there for thousands of years - and that they are Arab. If they are Arab, it is impossible to say that they lived under the rule of the Canaanites, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks and so forth. (And if they were there for so long - aren't they Canaanites? Is he saying that they pre-date the Canaanites?

Anyway you look at this, Areikat is being a-historical.

Beyond that, there is plenty of evidence that a significant number of "Palestinians" came from elsewhere. The Nashashibis, who were prominent residents of Jerusalem for centuries, arrived in Palestine in 1469. The Al Nammaris came after the expulsion of Muslims from Spain. The Dajani family came from Arabia. These were considered among the most prominent Arab clans in the Jerusalem area.

Furthermore, a significant number of Palestinian Arabs have surnames that indicate they came from elsewhere: Hejazi from Arabia, Mughrabi from Morocco, Masri from Egypt, Haurani from Syria, Turki and Dogmush from Turkey, Yamani from Yemen, Jaziri from Algeria, Hindi from India, Kurdi from Kurdistan, Halabi from Aleppo, and many more.

No Arabs have the surname Filisteeni.

Moreover, all the major tribes that lived near Jerusalem in the 19th century came from Arabia. And the Yamani and the Qais tribes in Palestine, who engaged in a famous centuries-old feud, came from Yemen and southern Arabia, respectively.

I am not an expert, but I have yet to see a Palestinian Arab family that was able to trace their ancestry beyond the Crusades. Perhaps some of the rapidly disappearing Palestinian Christians can, but the number is diminishingly small.

Beyond that, there was a significant immigration of Arabs to Palestine that mirrored the growth of Zionism, as tens of thousands of Arabs from Syria, Transjordan and Egypt came to seek their fortunes in the 1920s and early 1930s. All of them are considered "Palestinian" today. Certainly Areikat does not think of them as any less Palestinian even though they came from other areas.

In short, very few Palestinian Arabs have been there longer than a thousand years, and I would guess that most have not been there longer than 200 years. Areikat is spinning a large lie.

Like Americans, we are a hybrid of peoples defined by one overarching identity.

As I have recently shown, that identity simply did not exist until the middle of the 20th century.

Historian Benny Morris concurs, when he wrote a few years ago that "the birth of Palestinian Arab nationalism [occurred] in the 1920s (and the start of general Arab nationalism only a few years before). But for years thereafter, Palestinian Arab nationalism remained the purview of middle- and upper-class families. Most peasants, and perhaps many among the urban poor as well--together, some 80 percent of the Palestine Arabs--lacked political consciousness or a 'national' ideology."

In other words, they identified as Arabs, as clans, as members of a village, as tribes - but never as "Palestinians."

Before World War II, Palestinians and Jews living in Palestine enjoyed times of great harmony. My grandfather shared a bakery shop with a Jewish partner, Aaron, in Jerusalem’s Bak’a Tahta neighborhood. My mother told me stories of the period of peace and tranquillity they enjoyed with Jews during this time. That period ended in 1948, however, and a conflict began.

One only has to look at the history of Palestinian Arabs attacking Jews before 1948 to see how transparent this lie is. The 1886 attack on Petah Tikva, attacks on Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall in 1911, murders of Jews in 1912, the deadly riots in 1920, 1921 and 1929, the years of terror from 1936-9. As Christian pilgrims noted, in the 19th century the biggest insult an Arab could give was to call another a "Jew."

Areikat is lying.

We agreed to confine our right to self-determination and statehood on only 22 percent of what used to be our historic homeland, and we did so for the sake of peace and with a sober realization that seeking “absolute justice” is a fool’s errand.

"22 percent of what used to be our historic homeland" is another lie. Historic Palestine was not congruent with British Mandate Palestine; it included parts of Jordan and possibly Lebanon - even by the loose Arab definition of Palestine. Here's a map of the area drawn inthe 19th century based on the work of medieval Arab geographers.

Which begs the question - why don't Palestinian Arabs claim eastern Jordan as their "historic homeland"? (And why is the Negev. never considered a part of historic Palestine, included in their definition?)

The answer, as I have noted, is that their goal has always been to destroy a state, not to build one.

And to say that the PLO is accepting a state in the territories only is also a gross misrepresentation of the official PLO position. They are not only demanding their state on every inch of territories they never controlled, but they are also demanding the right to flood Israel with Arabs. The obvious goal is to turn Israel into another Palestinian Arab state. This is why they are dead-set against "two states for two peoples" and against recognizing that Israel is a Jewish state.

So while Areikat is charging that people are ignorant of his made-up history of "Palestinians," his own PLO is on the record as saying that the Jewish people does not exist. Talk about historic revisionism!

Beyond that, the PLO and the PA erases Israel from every single one of their maps. (Fatah logos start at about the 1-minute mark.)

To claim that they are accepting a two-state solution is to engage in wishful thinking. At best, they are accepting the temporary existence of Israel until they figure out how to get rid of it - demographically, politically, or militarily.

Areikat is a liar, and it is a shame that most people don't realize it.

Photo by DoZ taken at the Elder estate using a Fujifilm Finepix S2500HD

It is the last night of Chanukah, so here's an open thread to say good-bye.

Chanukah Video Night 8: Jew-Z's Groove

This video is notable because it caused Heeb Magazine to freak out over how much they hated it.

The disappearance and reappearance of Palestinian Arab nationalism, 1949-1968

Palestinian Arab nationalism effectively sprung out of thin air in 1920. Up until then, with very little exception, it was subsumed under the desire to be a part of "Greater Syria" which would include all of Palestine - and leave no room for a Jewish state.

As soon as the ink dried on the San Remo resolution, Palestinian Arab leaders changed their tune, and embraced the idea of an Arab Palestine that would, again, ensure that no Jewish state would ever exist.

After 1948, the desire for a Palestinian Arab state disappeared again. Palestinian Arabs in the west bank of the Jordan became citizens of that country; those in Gaza saw their land occupied by Egypt. Neither of them showed the slightest interest in their own state - the desire just disappeared.

What replaced it was a return to 1919's Syrian-style pan-Arabism, and the person they believed could help them was Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Here is an interesting AP story from 1957:

Yes, Palestinians in Gaza in 1957 wanted to be under the administration of Egypt - not to have their own country!

In fact, Jordan's King Hussein's major problem during that time was the threat from Nasser, who incited Jordanian Palestinians to revolt against him and even to assassinate him, so the entire Arab world could be Nasserist.

What happened to their vaunted nationalism? Where was their desire for an independent state that their leaders spoke about so eloquently during the 1940s?

It is apparent that the desire for a state was far less than the desire to destroy Israel, which was Nasser's selling point to them. "Liberating Palestine" meant liberating it - from Jews.

The 1964 PLO Covenant is a very interesting document. Its Arabic name is "Al-Mithaq Al-Kawmee Al-Philisteeni," which roughly means The Palestinian Pan-Arabist Covenant. It is mostly wedded to the Nasserist vision, insisting on how the Palestinian cause is a pan-Arab cause, and it is replete with references to Arab unity and the Arab nation. (It also specifically excludes Gaza and the West Bank from areas wanted for "Palestine" - since those areas were considered "liberated!" Significantly, it also refers to Israel's pre-1967 existence as "occupation.")

The 1968 version of the document, in contrast, is called "Al-Mithaq Al-Watanee Al-Philisteeni" which more explicitly means "The Palestinian National Covenant." Which means that only after 1967, when hopes for an Arab military victory over Israel faded, did Palestinian Arab nationalism become reincarnated.

We see that the Palestinian Arab leadership went from Greater Syrian nationalism to Palestinian Arab nationalism to pan-Arab Nasserite nationalism and then back to Palestinian Arab nationalism, all in the course of fifty years.

All of those political movements boasted wonderfully written documents and passionate speeches explaining why their cause was the only logical, moral and legal means to justly deal with Palestinian Arabs. There were no apparent cases of whiplash as people moved from one to the next, contradictory political position. The reason is clear: all those disparate movements had one thing in common, the eradication of Jewish nationalism. Everything else was window dressing to put a polite face on what is really a philosophy of hate.

And it continues today, as Palestinian Arabs are seemingly torn between what appears to be completely different paths - the PLO's stated methods of declarations and popular resistance, or Hamas' newly stated method of embracing a strategy of stages that mimics Arafat's 1974 Phased Plan to destroy Israel, to Islamic Jihad's dedication to nothing but armed resistance, to Hezbollah's single-minded goal of utterly destroying Israel by any means possible. But in the end, they are all paper-thin veneers on top of the same underlying goal - to destroy Israel by whatever means makes the most sense at the moment.

Westerners cannot wrap their heads around the idea that an entire national movement is really not interested in liberty and freedom for their people, but rather is meant solely to destroy another people. It is literally unbelievable that Arab leaders would hold millions of people hostage simply to use them as human weapons against Israel. But like it or not, it is the truth, and it is what needs to be understood before any real progress can be made.

An honor killing in Gaza

From PCHR:

At approximately 02:30 on Friday 23 December 2011, the body of M. A., 45, from Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, who was killed by strangulation, was brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. According to the Forensic Medicine Department, M. A. was killed by strangulation using hands. According to Chief Ayman al-Batniji, Spokesman of the Palestinian Police, the victim's nephew, who is accused of committing the crime, turned himself in to the police. During interrogation, he said that he killed M. A. to "maintain his family’s honor." Investigations are still ongoing.

The good news is that the number of such crimes in the territories has decreased this year.

Unity! More Fatah members detained in Gaza by Hamas

I noted yesterday that, even though releasing political prisoners has been the major concrete issue brought up in all the "unity" talks between Fatah and Hamas, each side continues to accuse the other of imprisoning people based on political affiliation.

Yesterday Hamas arrested 9 Fatah members - and today it detained 19 more.

According to Palestine Press Agency, Hamas is forcing those arrested yesterday to stand on one leg for long periods of time and to wear smelly bags over their heads.

So far, the vaunted unity talks have produced exactly nothing.

The next big test will be to see if Hamas and Fatah set up a temporary unified government, as they said they would in late January.

Some stuff I've been meaning to get to...

News from Israel you may have missed during 2011 (Aish)

US criticizes Palestinian Authority double-talk (IMRA)

Harvard's Middle East Outreach Center headed by BDS supporter (CAMERA)

8 incredible technologies used by the IDF (IDF)

Gingrich comments supported by the Quran (Hamid)

Jesus would have been shot by Palestinians (Honest Reporting)

100,000 Christians fled Egypt from March to September (AINA)

Here is a menorah in Sderot - made out of Qassam rockets!

(h/t Daled Amos, Josh, Yoel)

Hamas leader lays out his plan to destroy Israel; Egypt honors him

There have been scattered reports on bits and pieces of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's speech at Hamas' 24th anniversary rally on December 14th, but Palestinian Media Watch put it all together. It is a must-read for every Western politician and Middle East pundit - who will of course ignore and/or excuse what he says as just rhetoric.

We say today, explicitly, so it cannot be explained otherwise, that the armed resistance and the armed struggle are the path and the strategic choice for liberating the Palestinian land, from the [Mediterranean] sea to the [Jordan] river, and for the expulsion of the invaders and usurpers [Israel] from the blessed land of Palestine. The Hamas movement will lead Intifada after Intifada until we liberate Palestine - all of Palestine, Allah willing. Allah Akbar and praise Allah. We say with transparency and in a clear manner, that Palestinian reconciliation - and all sides must know this - cannot come at the expense of [our] principles, at the expense of the resistance. These principles are absolute and cannot be disputed: Palestine - all of Palestine - is from the sea to the river. We won't relinquish one inch of the land of Palestine. The involvement of Hamas at any stage with the interim objective of liberation of [only[ Gaza, the West Bank, or Jerusalem, does not replace its strategic view concerning Palestine and the land of Palestine.

This would-be genocidal terrorist has just left Gaza for the first time in years, and his first stop is in Egypt, where he was greeted with street banners and crowds of adoring Muslim Brotherhood fans:

A Hamas terrorist blew himself up in his own home last night at the Jabalia camp in Gaza.

Imad Washa was 37 when he was performing his accidentally self-sacrificing act of Jihad.

The Al Qassam Brigades says that Washa had a great career as a jihadist.

I don't know if that is true, but it certainly ended with a bang.

Hamas keeps talking Jihad in Arabic

As analysts remain transfixed over the idea of Hamas supposedly renouncing terror, Hamas keeps saying the exact opposite in Arabic.

The latest from Palestine Today:

The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas confirmed today on its adherence to the right of resistance in all forms, especially armed resistance. Defeating the occupation has proven this path of resistance, and jihad and martyrdom are the only way to extract our rights and liberate our land and our Jerusalem and our holy places.

Khaled Abu Toameh sums up Hamas' position nicely:

Hamas is joining the PLO not because it has changed, but out of a desire to make the Fatah-dominated organization stick to its true mission: the liberation of Palestine from Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea -- in other words, all the land that is currently Israel -- and to achieve the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees to their original villages and homes inside Israel.

Once Hamas takes control over the PLO, it will seek to cancel all agreements and understandings reached between the organization and Israel, above all the 1993 Oslo Accords. Hamas also wants the PLO to withdraw its recognition of Israel.

Hamas leaders and spokesmen are openly saying that joining the PLO does not mean that they would recognize Israel's right to exist or abandon the "armed struggle" against the Jewish state.

"Anyone who thinks that Hamas has, or will, change is living under an illusion," declared Hamas representative Osama Hamdan.

Hamdan is one of several Hamas officials who have been trying in the past few days to explain to the world that his movement has not abandoned its radical ideology and will in fact continue to fight for the "liberation of all Palestine."

But all these clarifications from the Hamas leaders regarding their true intentions seem to be falling on deaf ears in the West.

Some Western analysts have begun talking about the "new Hamas," one which is about to accept the two state solution and abandon the "armed struggle" in favor of a peaceful and popular uprising against Israel.

Some European government officials are also ignoring the Hamas clarifications, insisting that the movement's decision to join the PLO is an indication that it has abandoned its dream of replacing Israel with an Islamist state.

Those who think that Abbas's invitation to Hamas to join the PLO is a positive step for the peace process are deluding themselves. Hamas, according to its leaders, is joining the PLO because it wants to "liberate Palestine from the river to the sea," and not because it is interested in becoming part of the peace process.

But in the West, most analysts do not want to hear what Hamas says in Arabic.

The Dreidel Song, orchestral version

Here is an orchestral version of a mash-up of "I Have a Little Dreidel" and "Hava Nagila" , performed by the Marine Force Band in Okinawa, Japan this year, entitled "Dreidel Dance:"

Considering that it is a combination of two overused, cliched tunes, it is actually quite good.

It was arranged by Master Sgt. Robert Thurston and first performed by the US Air Force Band in 2006, available on this album.

Palestinian Arabs fabricating facts on arrests, prisoners

From Ma'an:

A report published on Monday has found that over 3,000 Palestinians were arrested by Israel's military in 2011.

Researcher on prisoner affairs Abdul Nasser Ferwaneh said that the average number of arrests in 2011 numbered 276 per month, or around nine a day.

A total of 3,312 Palestinians were arrested by Israeli authorities in 2011, 113 of whom were prisoners released in the October exchange deal between Hamas and Israel.

The detainees represented a cross section of Palestinian society, Ferwaneh said.

The number of annual arrests has actually decreased, Ferwaneh added, noting that in 2007 a total of 7,612 people were arrested by Israel military forces.

Sounds authoritative, doesn't it? Such specific numbers! And Ferwaneh even has an entire website dedicated to his passion of documenting prisoners with the very impartial name of "Palestine Behind Bars."

Only one problem. PCHR also counts all of the people arrested by Israel, and their numbers don't come close. According to PCHR, since October only around 249 have been arrested; Ferwana claims nearly 700 in that time period.

PCHR documents each arrest; Ferwana does not.

But the Ma'an article gets even more ridiculous:

Ramallah based prisoner group Addameer said in early December that Israel had detained nearly the same number of Palestinians they had freed in the first stage of a prisoner exchange deal.

Israeli forces detained nearly 470 Palestinians since the Oct. 18 release of 477 prisoners from Israeli jail in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Ramallah-based rights group Addameer said.

"This wave of arrests reveals that the exchange deal has not deterred Israel’s policy of detention of Palestinians; rather, Israeli prisons are being refilled with almost the exact number of Palestinians that were released in October," the prisoners group had said.

As I have documented, Addameer literally makes things up. According to Addammeer, Israel has arrested over 800,000 Palestinian Arabs since 1967 - and some have said even 900,000. These numbers are absurd and yet they grow by about 100,000 every year. Yet even Goldstone believed them.

Now, let's look at Addameer's claim that Israel has imprisoned as many people as it released since October 18th and see if its record of lies continues.

B'Tselem keeps track of the number of prisoners in Israeli prisons. At the end of September there were 5,269, after the October prisoner release it was 4,772, and on November 30 it was at 4,803 - a lot less than 5,269.

Has Israel gone on a mad rush of arrests since December 1? PCHR counts 105 arrests since then, so even if every single one of those went to prison - which never happens - Addameer's numbers are again shown to be complete fabrications.

What we can learn from Salam Fayyad's threat

From WAFA:

Prime Minister Salam Fayyad Monday condemned the Israeli deliberations on a bill submitted to the Knesset for declaring Jerusalem, including West and the East Jerusalem, to be the capital of Israel and the Jewish people.

Fayyad, in a press conference while signing a cooperation agreement between the Palestinian Investment Promotion Agency and Jordan Investment Board in Ramallah, stressed that no one has the right to decide the future of occupied East Jerusalem.

“There will never be a solution unless Jerusalem becomes the eternal capital of the Palestinian state,” said Fayyad, adding that the Israeli government, Knesset or any Israeli political party cannot deliberate on the Palestinian inalienable right to self-determination.

There is a contradiction between the two statements. Fayyad is not saying that "no one has the right" to determine the future of the parts of Jerusalem across the Green Line, he is saying that only Palestinian Arabs have the right to determine it.

When Fayyad says "there will never be a solution unless..." he is implicitly saying that "there will never be peace unless..." What he is saying is that without Palestinian Arab control of the historic parts of Jerusalem, there will continue to be fighting, terror, war and whatever else the Arab world wants to serve up.

Palestinian Arab leaders can make such threats with impunity, and without any fear that any Western leaders or the UN will criticize the fact that they are essentially acting like the mob, saying that if you don't want to get hurt, do what they say.

An interesting subtext to his statement is that Fayyad is tacitly admitting that Israel wants peace and that Palestinian Arabs consider peace to be of secondary importance - not as important as getting their demands met. After all, there is no legal, logical or moral reason a solution must include Jerusalem as part of "Palestine." A solution can certainly be found - and reached quite quickly - if Palestinian Arabs would compromise on their demands. But if we take Fayyad's words at face value, he is saying that his people are less interested in a solution to the conflict as they are in gaining all of the land they claim exclusively.

The funny thing is that everyone knows this. Arabs know it, the UN knows it, the EU knows it: Israel craves peace and is willing to compromise to reach an agreement. Palestinian Arabs are more interested in getting 100% of their demands met - to them, it is more important than peace, or independence, or gaining a land that could be a refuge for the descendants of 1948 Arab refugees.

The relative priorities of both sides are neatly encapsulated by Fayyad's demand.

(h/t CHA)