At the Camp David talks sponsored by President Bill Clinton in 2000, Israel under Ehud Barak offered Yasir Arafat a Palestinian state on the West Bank, with additional territory from Israel proper in exchange for Israeli settlements.
Yasir Arafat refused.
No Palestinian state.
In 2008, in Israeli-Palestinian talks, Israel under Ehud Olmert offered Mahmoud Abbas a Palestinian state on the West Bank, plus the land swaps — and a capital in East Jerusalem, as well as sovereignty over the Temple Mount.
Mahmoud Abbas refused.
No Palestinian state.
In Israeli-Palestinian talks in 2014, Israel under Benjamin Netanyahu offered Mahmoud Abbas a Palestinian state on the West Bank, with the land swaps, though without sovereignty over the Temple Mount and with an Israeli military presence along the Jordan River. American negotiator Martin Indyk said that, with the Israeli offer, the negotiations “went south” last February.
To quote Indyk: “Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas], at the critical moment when we needed to respond after we had spent a lot of time negotiating with Prime Minister Netanyahu and moved him into the zone of a possible agreement, didn’t respond.”
Mahmoud Abbas refused.
No Palestinian state.
As the late Abba Eban famously said, the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Copyright © 2014 by the Intermountain Jewish News
