Mahmoud Abbas: 'Of whom should I be afraid?'

[Jefferson23]

In an interview, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas discusses the Palestinian bid for statehood recognition at the UN; peaceful opposition to Israel; relations with Syria, Turkey, and Iran; Obama's words vs. actions; and his willingness to return to negotiations.

September 30, 2011

New York

Raghida Dergham, a columnist for the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat, is a contributing correspondent to the Global Viewpoint Network. She met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in New York earlier this week. It was the first interview with Abbas following his historic Sept. 23 speech before the UN General Assembly.

Raghida Dergham: Mr. President, how did you feel at the moment you stood before the General Assembly? At that historic moment as you stood there, how did you feel personally?

Mahmoud Abbas: I felt that we are really witnessing an historic event, that we are before a just and right demand, namely that we want to obtain a state that is a full member of the United Nations, just like other people. I, as I gazed upon the people, felt that if we held a vote we would have had unanimous support. But unfortunately, there are those who want to prevent the Palestinian people from reaching that, and those who want to reject this, and all we can do is to be patient.

in full: http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Global-Viewpoint/2011/0930/Mahmoud-Abbas-Of-whom-should-I-be-afraid

[oberliner]

1. Good grammar

Most people don't use "whom" anymore.

[Jefferson23]

2. Settlements in the West Bank

http://www.fmep.org/settlement_info/settlement-info-and-tables/stats-data/settlements-in-the-west-bank-1

[Jefferson23]

3. SECURING OCCUPATION: The Real Meaning of the Wye River Memorandum

By Norman G. Finkelstein

November 28, 1998



As a formal document, the Wye River Memorandum breaks no new ground. Its stated purpose is merely to reaffirm and "facilitate implementation" of "prior agreements." Nonetheless the memorandum illuminates the process set in motion at Oslo and dispels lingering illusions. In these remarks, I will first sketch the crucial historical background, then analyze the document and, finally, consider the prospects for a just settlement.



Background

The aim of the mainstream Zionist movement from its inception a century ago has been to create a Jewish state in Palestine. Ideally, this meant a state with a homogeneously Jewish population; for practical purposes, a state with an overwhelming Jewish population, tolerating a small Arab minority of perhaps 20 percent. (1)

The main obstacle to the realization of this goal was the indigenous Arab population. In his recently published quasi-official history of Israel, British historian Martin Gilbert argues that "there was a strong desire among the Labor Zionists to live together with the Arabs, and not, as many of the extremists hoped, to make them subordinate to Jewish nationalist needs, or even to drive them out of Palestine altogether." Scholarship does not sustain this claim. Labor Zionism was committed to the "building of a Jewish society by Jews alone, from foundation stone to rafter" in "all of Palestine" (Anita Shapira). Accordingly, as Zeev Sternhell shows in an important study, "nobody fought against the Arab worker more vigorously than ; nobody preached national, economic and social segregation with more determination than the Labor movement." (2)

Faced with indigenous resistance, European conquest movements in the post-Columbus era typically resorted to the most brute force: extermination. Yet, by the early twentieth century this extreme option was no longer available. The Zionist movement thus set its sights on "population transfer" -- the euphemism for expulsion -- of the indigenous population. Indeed until after World War II, international opinion acquiesced in expulsion as a means of resolving ethnic conflicts. (3) Historian Benny Morris observes that, for the Zionist leadership, "transferring the Arabs out" was seen as the "chief means" of "assuring the stability and 'Jewishness' of the proposed Jewish state." During the 1948 war the Arab population was effectively expelled from the conquered areas of Palestine, completing the first phase of Zionist conquest. (4)

In the course of the June 1967 war, Israel conquered the long-coveted West Bank and Gaza (as well as the Sinai and Golan Heights). In this second phase of conquest, the Zionist leadership confronted the same dilemma as earlier in the century: it wanted the land but not the people. The options available for resolving this dilemma, however, had considerably narrowed. Not only extermination but expulsion as well was no longer politically tenable. The Zionist movement accordingly opted for encirclement: appropriating as much of the resources (especially water) and land as was feasible while confining the Arab population to native reservations. This is the essence of the Allon Plan, first formulated in July 1967 and the operative framework of the Oslo process, allowing Israel to retain roughly half the West Bank.

in full:

http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=4&ar=13

[aranthus]

4. Palestinians? Hamas? The Iranians?

There's probably more.