Analysis: Why was PA reaction to speech so harsh?

[Fozzledick]

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

The Palestinian Authority leadership's hysterical, hasty and clearly miscalculated response to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's speech at Bar-Ilan University on Sunday night is likely to boomerang because it makes the Palestinians appear as "peace rejectionists."

The PA, perhaps, has every right to be angry with Netanyahu's statements. However, its leaders should have been more careful in choosing the right words to express their sentiments.

Even before he completed his speech, several PA officials and spokesmen used every available platform to declare their total rejection of Netanyahu's ideas, especially with regards to the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state and recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.

Some went as far as hurling personal insults at Netanyahu, branding him a liar, a fraud and a swindler. Others hinted at the possibility that, in the wake of his strategy, the Palestinians would now have to resort to another intifada.

...

The harsh response of the PA is the direct result of high hopes that its leaders have pinned on the administration of US President Barack Obama.

Reports about a looming crisis between the administration and Netanyahu over the future of the Middle East peace process, combined with Obama's conciliatory approach toward the Arab and Muslim worlds, created the impression in Ramallah that the Israeli government had no choice but to accept all the Palestinian demands.

Briefing reporters on the eve of Netanyahu's speech, some of PA President Mahmoud Abbas's top aides predicted that, in the wake of increased US pressure, Netanyahu would be forced to give in, freezing settlement construction and accepting the two-state solution.

That's why most of these aides expressed surprise when they heard the prime minister's uncompromising position on most of the sticking issues.

By completely rejecting Netanyahu's offer of a demilitarized state and his demand to recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, the PA leadership has climbed a high tree from which it will find it difficult to climb down.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1244371107342&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[xchrom]

1. why is 'branding' netanyahu' a liar so divisive and controversial?

he has lied -- not unlike PA leaders -- but really -- an undivided jerusalem? -- what did you expect?

[shira]

2. Abbas expected Netanyahu to cave and give more than Olmert offered last year, which Abbas rejected

Olmert's proposal went further than Barak's 9 years ago regarding RoR...

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1243346501041&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Abbas also told The Washington Post that former prime minister Ehud Olmert accepted the principle of a "right of return" to Israel for Palestinian refugees and offered to resettle thousands of Palestinians in Israel. And he said Olmert proposed a Palestinian state on 97 percent of the West Bank, and showed him its contours on a map. Abbas said he turned down Olmert's peace offer because "the gaps were too wide."

....

What's interesting about Abbas's hardline position," wrote The Washington Post's Jackson Diehl, who conducted the interview along with a colleague, "is what it says about the message that Obama's first Middle East steps have sent to Palestinians and Arab governments... in the Obama administration, so far, it's easy being Palestinian."... Obama, with his repeated demands for a settlement freeze, "has revived a long-dormant Palestinian fantasy: that the United States will simply force Israel to make critical concessions, whether or not its democratic government agrees, while Arabs passively watch and applaud."

So Abbas is pissed off...but not really too much because things aren't that bad for Palestinians after all:

"Until then, in the West Bank we have a good reality . . . the people are living a normal life.” — Mahmoud Abbas

So he's pissed that he's not getting all he wants but he can live with it for now because things are pretty normal.

It's hard to imagine Netanyahu offering anything similar to Olmert's rejected offer from last year.

This isn't ending anytime soon.

[Sezu]

6. First Olmert now Bibi....it's starting to look like

a TREND and for sure the world is gonna notice.

[regnaD kciN]

3. Ah, the Jerusalem Post...

Otherwise known as Israel's own Washington Times. :eyes:

[shira]

4. the author of that article from JPost is a Palestinian Muslim who lives in Israel

[Violet_Crumble]

7. Conservative mush such as this are the mainstay of some...

The author of this was quoted by one member of this forum as being somehow the Palestinian who's right about the I/P conflict and has a habit of going 'But he's an Arab and a Muslim!' as though it's some sort of convincing argument that everything he says is right. Here's a previous thread about some of his dribble...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x277810

[Sezu]

5. It's because they think they can get away with it

now that Obama is gonna throw his weight around with Israel. Abbas has said as much. They are counting on Obama and his team to have the same kind of insane irrational hatred for Bibi et al as appears on sites like this.

Personally I don't think Obama is like that. I mean he wants to talk to other right wing gov'ts so I doubt he is as fanatic as some wish he would be.

[Violet_Crumble]

8. People feel the same about Nutty as they did about Bush...

Being left-wing, people don't tend to get all gushy and praise right-wing politicians, especially when they're hardline ones like Nutty. I'm sure those who want everyone to worship at the altar of Nutty are prone to get confused that people detest him for very good reason and would mistakenly label that as 'irrational hatred', just the way I've seen freepers claim that we have an irrational hatred of Bush here at DU...

[Name removed]

10. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[shira]

9. just remember, since Netanyahu and JPost are rightwing, then logically.....

the opposition - being the PA, PLO, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and their apologists.....all espouse the proper leftwing and very liberal perspective.

Whodathunkit? Arafat was progressive! Abbas is a liberal! Hamas should represent the democratic party of the USA!

thus, "rightwing" Netanyahu and JPost are always wrong and Palestinian hardliners always right. Anyone who sides with Israelis = rightwing and conservative while anyone siding with Palestinians = leftwing and very liberal.

Right vs. Left! Conservative vs. VERY, VERY liberal!

It's so obvious......freaking DUH!!!

:eyes:

The rub is that JPost and Netanyahu are extremely liberal in comparison to the hardline Palestinian perspective (endless jihad, subjugation of women and gays, holocaust denying, incitement to genocide, sharia law...).

but it's kinda cool pretending everything articulated by Palestinian leadership is liberal in comparison to Netanyahu and the Jerusalem Post. :)