According to Alquds newspaper, on September 14, President Mahmoud Abbas had a confrontational meeting with Tony Blair, the current Quartet envoy. During the meeting, which took place in Amman, Abbas presented Blair with a possible plan B should the Palestinian UN bid fails
Alquds quoted Abbas as saying, “I will return to the Palestinian leadership, which will make a decision on whether the time has come for Israel to re-assume its responsibility as an occupying authority.” He also said, “We will not keep the Palestinian Authority as a name.”
Yesterday, the Palestinian Authority president called upon the international community to recognize the right of the Palestinian people to an independent state.
Abbas’s speech at the UN hinted at this consideration when he said, “This settlement policy threatens to also undermine the structure of the Palestinian National Authority and even end its existence.”
This is the reality that is absent from many Israelis minds. The two-state solution is not going to last forever. Abbas and the PLO leaders understand that they cannot continue sailing in a sinking ship. The two-state solution is a sinking ship and only a few are trying save it. We are at a historic moment that would define the future of the Israeli-Palestinian relationship.
Alquds also reported that Tony Blair presented President Abbas with a draft proposal to end the peace process stalemate. However Abbas was quick to reject Blair’s proposal for its bias toward Israel.
The proposal demanded Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, which is something the PLO has rejected. It also referred to the 1967 borders, but considered them unrealistic and should be finalized in an agreement between the two parties.
The proposal failed to mention the settlements in any form, but it did include a call for the Palestinian leadership to drop its quest for membership at the United Nations.
According to Alquds, President Abbas asked Blair if the proposal was written by one of Netanyahu’s aides.
September 24, 2011
1:09 am
Blair is, probably, the most disgusting person alive today. In a world where justice means Only how much money and power you have, creatures like Blair must have lots of fun.
September 24, 2011
2:23 am
The PA is finally beginning to realise the best weapon is no weapon.
September 24, 2011
4:02 am
Plan B is a very good plan. The problem with plan B is that even things will become much worse (for Palestinians and Israeli) before it gets better.
September 24, 2011
9:20 am
@AZIZ
“The two-state solution is not going to last forever.”
Ummm…why? Why is everyone on 972 making this assumption? Why does everyone here seem to think that Abbas or the Palestinians have the power to impose themselves on Israel as citizens? Its getting kind of silly that no one on 972 is willing to back up these kinds of statements.
September 24, 2011
9:29 am
@ٌrichardnyc
1- Israel controls over 80% of the West Bank at the moment
2- You cannot take the land without the people. That might work for few years but not forever
3- No one is forcing Israel to do it. Actually there are voices from Likud Party that are calling for it.
4- The only other option would Apartheid if you control millions of people and don’t give them citizenship
5- Palestinians open to both options. Israel must CHOOSE: Does it want one state or two states. If Israel wants two states, then why the heck is it confiscating more land in the West Bank and building new settlements that make the two states solution impossible.
September 24, 2011
10:30 am
@AZIZ
Thank you finally addressing this issue!
1 – So what? It used to control 100% of Gaza
2 – Israel has only taken (put its citizens on) a very small fraction of the land
3 – That’s true, but are those people in charge? They’re not. Last time I checked the PM, and his opposition were both talking chiefly about the importance of keeping Israelis and Palestinians separated.
4 – So what? What is anyone going to do about that? BDS? don’t make me laugh. You’re NEVER going to reach a moral consensus in the west that its a good idea to boycott the Jews again. Its just not on the table.
5 – Outside the major blocs, there are what, about 100,000 Israelis? and 2.5 MILLION Palestinians? and the little settlements are really growing – even ARIEL isn’t really growing. So the demographic/geographic imperatives for Palestinian self-rule aren’t going anywhere for a very very long time. You’re presenting a FALSE choice–>Israel can choose just to keep occupying you and maintain its settler population indefinitely. I agree there are powerful forces in Israel that want to prevent two states, but they’re actually NOT succeeding (look again at the demographic trends in the West Bank). Even JERUSALEM is becoming more Arab.
–>I agree that its pragmatic to tell an Israeli audience what you’re telling me, but I don’t have any power to alter the situation so I’m approaching this from a purely OBJECTIVE point of view.
–>Bottom line, the status quo can and probably will continue for the foreseeable future and I don’t see how Palestinians are going to pressure Israel to accept them as citizens. What are the available Palestinian tactics? You can do a general strike–>that won’t work because Israel doesn’t depend on Palestinians the way SA whites depended on blacks. You can march peacefully to the wall–>Israel will just push you back, and even if it kills people in the process, the world will NOT take your side because it will see the wall as a de facto border (look at what happened in the Golan Heights recently). You can start another violent intifada–>not going to help you. You can appeal to the world–>that won’t work because it would be totally ridiculous for the international community to reverse course and INSIST that Israel annex territories that have been considered occupied this whole time; this totally contravenes international law. If you can’t even get UN recognition under a plausible theory (liberation of occupied land), how the heck are you going to get recognition as part of country that refuses you? Its an absurd notion.
So….What now? Where is this imminent one state? I don’t see it on the horizon.
September 24, 2011
10:52 am
When someone uses the “Jews” instead of Israelis or Zionists – here Richard from the Big Apple in his comment on the BDS – you know right away that you’re dealing with a right-wing Zionist or an anti-semite. Birds of a feather flock together….
September 24, 2011
11:22 am
Very smart move, Abu Mazen. The 2-states-solution has been dead for a long time, but it requires this kind of funeral to make it official. Only then will the way be open to the one-state option.
September 24, 2011
12:53 pm
I agree with Aziz, on the point of its up to Israel to determine if it wants a single democratic state or a two-state.
Israel only exists as the Israel that zionists know about in a two-state approach.
Its a when equation. As Richard from NY describes, Israelis will not give up their self-governance, but they do have to give up their governance over others.
Only the two-state solution, with current population patterns, affords Israel or Palestine self-governance as each community describes that they desire.
Only in diaspora Palestine and external solidarity do a majority advocate for a single state.
I would hope that Palestinians would acknowledge that the West Bank and particularly East Jerusalem would be both Judaicized and commercialized in a single state in which there were prohibitions from ethnic or even ideological screens for land purchase.
The only way to preserve a body of land as sovereign Palestinian is in the context of a two-state, and then it is still likely to be commercialized and gentrified.
Ultimately, some form of federation of states will emerge, as the communities have so many natural intersections.
September 24, 2011
12:54 pm
Richard,
What can the Palestinians do? see:
see:http://www.palestinestrategygroup.ps/Regaining_the_Initiative_FINAL_17082008_(English).pdf
.
In short:
Palestinians will prevent Israel from the West Bank output for the benefit of the Israeli economy, and will force Israel to take on the full economic burden of occupation.
September 24, 2011
12:54 pm
This is called poker. Nothing more.
September 24, 2011
4:21 pm
If Abbas had wanted to really put his foot down he would have told Blair, “tell Netanyahu he can shove this document back up where it came from…”
September 24, 2011
7:53 pm
Abbas has bluffed about resigning (oh-what are we going to do without him!) or dismantling the PA before. If he dismantles the PA, what is going to happen to all the workers (those who actually do some work and the others who just collect paychecks out Abbas’ generosity to his friends and family) who collect salaries from the PA, half of which is financed by US and EU handouts? Abbas would be lynched. Maybe he will try the trick of “dismantling the PA”, but then having it continue under some other name. Ho-hum.
September 24, 2011
9:11 pm
Reminds me of people like Uri Avnery who said “quick, we have to make a deal with Arafat because he is the only Palestinian leader strong enough to impose an agreement on his people”. Just like Sadat. Well, what are they saying in Egypt and Jordan today? “The agreements were made with the pharoah-dictator without the support of the ‘masses’, so they are null and void”. Same with Abbas…his term expired some time ago, his government is illegitimate, so any agreement made with him is null and void. And HAMAS is waiting in the wings….
September 25, 2011
2:07 am
@ Ben Israel, yaaaawn
@ Richard Witty, I agree with you. I think it’s time that really intellectual thought was given to confederating Israel and occupied territories. The two-state solution is dead and the smoking gun is in the PM’s office. Confederation would have been the long-term result of the two-state solution anyway so we may as well just jump a couple of steps.
September 25, 2011
3:32 am
Philos says …
.
“I think it’s time that really intellectual thought was given to confederating Israel and occupied territories”
.
Yawn. Spoken like a lemming. Good luck with that …
September 25, 2011
5:21 am
@Deïr Yassin, in the Palestine – (illegal)israel conflict we mention “JEWS” and NOT israelians because illegal-israel is a racist zionistic JEWISH state! Zionism is apartheid.
September 25, 2011
5:28 am
The Problem With Bi-National State Projects At The Present Time
Some think it’s the miracle-solution, a bi-national state.
Why not.
Soon you could call it Belgium, vacant, for free!
You could get even an unemployed king, you know to unify the people.
A good intellectual case, Belgium.
But not really a success-history.
September 25, 2011
11:44 am
Sorry Henry, whether you speak German, Flemish or French in actual fact Belgium is not all that bad, or rather not bad at all.
September 25, 2011
12:53 pm
@ Peter
I’m not really sure what you try to say nor am I sure I want to know. What I do know is: when RichardNYC writes concerning the BDS that “it’s not a good idea to boycott the Jews again” he’s deliberately implying that supporters of the BDS are anti-semites. I wonder what propaganda the White South African regime used against the BDS.
September 25, 2011
2:38 pm
@ DIRECTROB
Wish you elaborate your point for my talented friend Jos Tontlinger, who is a desesperate Belgian citizen from the German minority and lives in Brussels. He would be very interested to know why you think Belgium is doing fine. According to him, Brussels is the only remaining Belgian citadel to resist to Flemish separatism, but probably not for long.
Even if my friend admits relucantly Belgium was from the start an artificial state imagined by, guess who, England to create a buffer zone between France and the Dutch harbors, he is rather sceptical at the present time about the bi-national state ‘s concept & virtues, witnessing the dismantling of his country for irrational motives. And frankly I can’t blame him to think so: who can pretend that the Palestinians and the Israelis would be more willing to build a common state than the Flemish and the Wallonians who were not enemies before the creation of belgium in 1830?
September 25, 2011
9:35 pm
Here’s more for the list of failed “binational” or multinational states:
(1) Czechoslovakia
(2) Cyprus
(3) The USSR
(4) Yugoslavia
(4a) Bosnia
(4b) Kosovo
(5) British India
(5a) East and West Pakistan
(6) Sudan
September 26, 2011
8:25 am
Ben Israel: Almost all countries are multi-national. The list is endless. Countries with only one nationality and/or language are the exceptions.
September 26, 2011
1:16 pm
Henry,
Belgium may be a bit crazy as far as language is concerned, it is also a rich, peaceful and successful country. People are not ashamed two speak two languages.
September 26, 2011
3:17 pm
@ DIRECTROB
Only a tiny minority speak both languages in Brussels. Some politicians, intellectuals, artists. Jos often feel like The Last of the Belgians.
‘Belgium’ is clinically dead.
Now I’m not HISTORIAN and I don’t intend to spend this night to tell you the political situation/divorce between Flemish and Wallonians.
Only this, easy to visualize:
‘Belgium’ is WITHOUT GOVERNMENT since general election of June 13, 2010: I’m not kidding you.
September 28, 2011
6:25 am
@Deïr Yassin, you tag those as “anti-semites” because when it comes to criticising illegal-israel , they/we use the word “JEWS” and NOT israeli. Therefore, it is NOT us that predominately place so called “JEWS” higher on the hierarchy ladder but it is the zionist-fake-jews themselves that unilateral proclaimed a JEWISH state IN Palestine. Besides, get into some facts, authentic “jews” are children of Abraham thus HAMITES and ARAB people are children if Shem thus SEMITES. The one that is hating jews only because they are jews is an anti-hamite, not an anti-semite. The world is just too stupid to understand this.Illegal-israel will become Palestine again within my lifetime.