Peter Beinart: Obama Betrayed Ideals on Israel (excellent read)

[shira]

57. It's still too vague and leaves the door wide open. Here's Abbas admitting...

...that he never gave Olmert a number. From my last post with a link to al-Jazeera's papers:

President Abbas goes on to explain that in his meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
“on refugees” he did not specify a number, but rather:
we said some but not all would return to what is now Israel. (Id.)

Here it is in detail by AM (Abu Mazen aka Abbas):

AM: We discussed all issues and asked all questions in our meetings. For example, on borders, we asked, “what are the borders? Give us maps.” We did not receive an answer until 3 months before the end of negotiations and until Rice said that the 1967 is the baseline. They showed us but did not give us a map. They said 6.5% of the territory for swaps, we said only 1.9% and that is when the built up area of all the settlements is only 1.2%. That issue, had it been addressed and resolved, would have solved all three issues of borders, settlements, and Jerusalem. On refugees, we said some but not all would return to what is now Israel. All refugees can get Palestinian citizenship (all 5 million) if they want to (for example Palestinian refugees in Jordan may not want to while for refugees in Lebanon there is a need). With that Palestinian refugees will no longer be stateless but rather foreigners.

That was in March 2009, months after Olmert's final offer and a few weeks into Netanyahu's term.

Where's this 150,000 number coming from when Abbas admitted he never specified any number?

With that Palestinian refugees will no longer be stateless but rather foreigners.

He's admitting Palestinian refugees will remain in limbo, b/c Palestine won't accept them as anything other than foreigners. The point being, millions of Palestinians are potential returnees to Israel due his proposal being so vague.

Realize also that in the paper you just provided about 150,000 refugees that one of the requirements by the PLO is that each of the 5-7 million refugees has an individual RoR that cannot be negotiated away. How do you circle the square on that one?

Put it all together and the PLO is blowing smoke and playing games. They're still holding out for 2 states becoming 1 state. Same shit for the past 60+ years.

[font color = "red"]ETA in summary:

1. You believe 150,000 would remain a set figure. But Abbas said 'some, not all'.

2. What happens to the other millions of Palestinians whose individual rights (meaning they get to choose) cannot be negotiated away?

3. How about the possible millions of refugees who become foreigners in a future Palestine? They'll still be considered refugees according to the PLO.[/font]