The real obstacle to Palestinian statehood

[Fozzledick]

As the Palestinians press for recognition of statehood at the United Nations, Israelis fear that their own national legitimacy is under growing assault. When Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas recently addressed the General Assembly, he blamed the origins of the conflict and the absence of peace entirely on Israel, and noted the attachment of Christians and Muslims to the Holy Land but omitted the Jews. He received a standing ovation.

In the current atmosphere, the Israeli demand that Palestinians recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state has assumed a new urgency. On the face of it, that expectation should hardly pose a dilemma for Palestinian leaders committed to peace. A two-state solution, after all, means that each state has the right to define itself by its majority culture.

Yet Mr. Abbas, along with other Palestinian leaders, insists he will never accept a Jewish state. In opposing the right of the Jewish people to self-determination, Palestinian leaders have exposed the real obstacle to Middle East peace: not the creation of a Palestinian state, which most Israelis support, but the existence of a Jewish state, which most Palestinians reject.

...

The denial of Jewish history and identity – widespread in the Arab world – is ultimately the greatest threat to peace. Settlements can be dismantled, as Israel proved during its withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. But an insidious educational process of delegitimizing the other can’t so easily be uprooted.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/the-real-obstacle-to-palestinian-statehood/article2192269/

[vminfla]

1. Moving Goal Posts

For the last 60 years, the Arab world has moved the goal post further back with every Israreli concession. When the most oft-repeated idion of the area is "First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people" you know that it less about another arab state and more about the destruction of Israel.