FEATURED JOBS
Comments (0)The PLO repeated Mahmoud Abbas’ assertion that the Jews have a history in Palestine and rejected charges that this means Jews have an exclusive claim to the region.
The Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington this week re-released the Palestinian Authority president’s statement delivered in a meeting with Jewish leaders in Washington in June, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported. The statement said: “Nobody denies the Jewish history in the Middle East. A third of our Holy Koran talks about the Jews in the Middle East, in this area. Nobody from our side at least denies that the Jews were in Palestine, were in the Middle East.”
The release from the PLO office was in response to a July 22 letter from a number of Palestinian intellectuals who charged that Abbas had accepted “an exclusive Jewish claim to Palestine.”
The PLO office said Abbas was merely repeating facts not in dispute; to suggest that it amounted to accepting an “exclusive” Jewish claim helps “sow the seeds of division in the Palestinian people,” Ma’an quoted the office as saying.
Barak Names New Military Chief of Staff
Defense Minister Ehud Barak named a new chief of staff for Israel’s military in the wake of a scandal involving his choice.
Barak on Sunday named Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant to replace current chief Gabi Ashkenazi, who has served for the past four years and whose position was not extended by an extra year, as is traditional. Ashkenazi will step down in February.
Barak will reportedly ask the Cabinet to approve Galant’s appointment at its weekly meeting Aug. 29.
Galant, 51, currently serves as head of the Southern Command of the Israel Defense Forces.
Israel’s Channel 2 television earlier this month reported on a document leaked to the station, called the “Galant document,” which allegedly outlined a public relations campaign for Galant in order to achieve the chief of staff position. The document was deemed a fake last week by police. Galant has not been implicated in the scandal.
Netanyahu: Peace Talks Can Succeed
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said direct peace talks with the Palestinians can end in success if Israel is not the only side making concessions.
“I know that there is a considerable skepticism after 17 years having passed since the beginning of the Oslo process. It is possible to understand why this doubtfulness exists. We are seeking to surprise the critics and the skeptics, but in order to do this we need a real partner on the Palestinian side,” Netanyahu said Sunday at the beginning of the weekly Cabinet meeting. “If we discover that we have a real partner on the Palestinian side, sincere and serious in negotiations, negotiations which will require both sides to take necessary measures, not only the Israeli side but also the Palestinian side, if we discover we have such a partner, we will be able to shortly reach a historic peace agreement between the two peoples.”
The United States invited Israel and the Palestinians to relaunch direct peace talks Sept. 2 in Washington. Both sides have reportedly agreed to attend. Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, joined by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah, have been invited to dine Sept. 1 with President Obama. Prior to the dinner, Obama will meet with each leader separately. The next day, Netanyahu, Abbas and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will meet at the State Department to launch talks.
Netanyahu said Sunday that a future agreement must include durable security arrangements for Israel; recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, including a solution for the Palestinians’ demand of a right of return and the Palestinian refugee problem, and a demilitarized Palestinian state.
On Saturday night, The Jerusalem Post reported that an official in the prime minister’s office said Netanyahu will take any accord he reaches with the Palestinians to the Knesset and “to the people,” either in a national referendum or new elections.
Both Clinton and U.S. special envoy George Mitchell said that the negotiations should lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state in one year and the settlement of all core issues including borders, Jerusalem and water.