Israel: Is Abbas yielding on the right of return?

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is now pretending to be Israel’s last best hope for peace, said Elad Benari in Arutz Sheva. Last week he appeared to waive the longstanding Palestinian demand of the “right of return,” or the idea that all Palestinians can return to their families’ ancestral villages in what is now Israel and claim citizenship. Since such an influx would destroy Israel as a Jewish state, dropping that demand has always been Israel’s precondition for accepting Palestinian statehood. Speaking English in an interview with Israel’s Channel 2, Abbas said he personally would not care to return to his ancestral village, adding cryptically: “I believe that the West Bank and Gaza is Palestine, and the other parts Israel.”

It sounded great for a brief moment, said The Jerusalem Post in an editorial. But other Palestinian officials immediately spoke up to “clarify” Abbas’s position by denying that he or any other Palestinian leader would ever give an inch on the right of return. It just shows that we can’t trust Abbas, who says “one thing in public and something else altogether behind closed doors.” His Palestinian Authority has consistently and publicly “glorified terrorists who have massacred Israelis, while depicting the Jews of Israel as evil.” That’s why Palestinians won’t back Abbas’s concession, said Roni Shaked in Ynetnews.com. The general public still fervently believes in the concept of Greater Palestine. “Abbas’s statement may ignite a debate and start a process that will lead to the acceptance of reality”—but it will be a long road.

All the more reason for Israeli leaders to support Abbas, said Dov Weissglass in Yedioth Ahronoth. While it’s true that many Palestinian leaders have had different messages for different audiences, Abbas shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. If we are ever to have peace, Palestinians must abandon the right of return. For once, they finally have a leader who tells them that “bravely and directly.” He deserves Israel’s appreciation. “What more does he have to do to be recognized as a ‘partner’?”

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t want a Palestinian negotiating partner, said Ha’aretz. Defying Israel’s commitment under the road-map agreement, he refuses to halt the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, hoping to create “facts on the ground” that will make it impossible to draw borders for a Palestinian state. What’s shocking, though, is that he’s not the only politician to downplay Abbas’s overture. Even centrist and leftist parties “responded coolly.” If Israeli politicians don’t spell out how they plan to resume negotiations with Abbas, they will all “bear responsibility for the disastrous consequences of losing Israel’s Palestinian partner.”