No Deal Without Control of Jerusalem, PA Says

To put it more specifically, Arab negotiator Ahmed Qurei recently said that "Palestinian leaders will never end their territorial roe with Israel without gaining control of Jerusalem in the deal."

Gaining control of Jerusalem. Notice the language here. There's no limitation to the eastern portion of Jerusalem which Israel liberated in 1967. The PA wants the whole ball of wax, despite its majority-Jewish population. And notice also that there's no talk of compromise here. It's an outright non-negotiable demand serving as a precondition to negotiations. Why can't Israel talk like this? Why can't Israel say, "Listen, Arabs. You want peace? Here's the deal. We get Jerusalem, and you drop this silly Right of Return business. You also repudiate the 1974 Phased Plan and recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state with a majority Jewish population. Once you agree to that, then we'll start negotiating."

Instead, back in 1993, Israel negotiated with the PLO without any preconditions. They didn't even force the PLO to pretend to amend its covenant, which explicitly calls for Israel's destruction. They continue to negotiate with the PA despite Mahmoud Abbas's statement back in February that the PA would never recognize Israel as a Jewish state. This is silly. But it gets even better.

The negotiator said Palestinian leaders also are concerned Israeli control of the city means Judaism is spreading throughout Jerusalem.

What is this man talking about? Jews have been a plurality in Jerusalem since at least the 1840's. We've been the majority there since at least 1896. So, sorry, Ahmed, if you're worried about "Judiasm spreading throughout Jerusalem," that ship sailed over 150 years ago.

"The Palestinian leadership is decisive (in its stance) not to negotiate and conclude matters with the Israelis without Jerusalem," he said "The postponement of the discussion of this issue is aimed at continuing the Israeli plans to Judaize the holy city, especially the al-Aksa mosque."

Again, I'm just at a total loss here. Qurei seems to be claiming that Israel has plans to "Judaize" the Al-Aksa Mosque. Of course, the reality is that Israel has allowed the Islamic Waqf to control the Al-Aksa Mosque since 1967, and I'm not aware of any plans to change that. Of course, the beautiful irony there is that the Al-Aksa Mosque was the culmination of the Islamization of what had once been an exclusively holy site.