Abbas mentions - but doesn't condemn - Psagot shooting

MKs visit Muqata with nary an Israeli flag in sight; PA optimistic agreement can be reached by 9-month deadline.

By LAHAV HARKOV
PA President Abbas in Ramallah (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
PA President Abbas in Ramallah
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
All violence on both sides should be condemned, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told MKs visiting the Mukata presidential compound Monday, though he would not specifically speak out against the shooting of a nine-year-old girl in Psagot this week.
“Two days ago a girl was shot or stabbed. That is not the topic of discussion for today. Four Palestinians were killed in Kalandiya, too,” Abbas stated.
“We should all condemn murder and bloodshed of innocents.”
Only nine Labor MKs and Hatnua’s David Tsur of the Knesset Caucus to End the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict – led by MK Hilik Bar (Labor) and sponsored by pro-peace NGO One Voice – traveled to Ramallah to meet Abbas in a conference room featuring a large portrait of Yasser Arafat and a mural of the Temple Mount.
Several Palestinian officials, including PLO executive committee secretary Yasser Abed Rabbo and Palestinian Committee for Interaction with Israeli Society chairman Muhammad Madani, attended the event.
The PA did not return the caucus’s gesture and hang an Israeli flag in the Mukata even though a Palestinian flag was hung in the Knesset when officials visited in July. At the time, Madani said that it would be “logical” to hang an Israeli flag in the Mukata for the MKs’ visit.
Abbas thanked the MKs for visiting, saying that meeting Israeli and Jewish leaders helps spread a message of peace.
“In recent years, there were many attempts to return to the negotiating table. We had very successful talks with the [former prime minister Ehud] Olmert government,” Abbas stated. “We were very close to an agreement, but Olmert’s government ended; this was a great opportunity, which we missed.”
“We didn’t succeed in reaching the negotiation table with the new government, which is why we went to the UN,” Abbas said. “Some say we went to the UN instead of talks, but that isn’t true. Now, thanks to [US President Barack] Obama and [US Secretary of State John] Kerry, we found a joint base to renew talks between us and Israel.”
The PA president did not get into details about talks, saying that only Kerry is authorized to do so. He did not refer to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu or his speech Sunday demanding that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state.
However, Abbas emphasized that the nine-month time frame for talks that Kerry set is enough to reach an agreement.
“We want normalcy between Israelis and Palestinians,” Abbas said, but added points that he said are important in order for that to happen.
First, the PA president said “the Israeli government must stop settlers from attacking Palestinians.”
Second, Jews should not be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount, he added.
Finally, Abbas said construction in settlements “has a negative effect on efforts to reach an agreement.”
Still, Abbas said the current round of talks is “very serious,” and expressed hope to reach an agreement in the next five months.
“Like John Kerry said, this may be our last chance. That’s very scary,” Abbas concluded.
Bar said he’s happy to hear Abbas’s optimism, but that he does not agree that this is the last chance for peace.
“People called for MKs not to come here because of [the shooting in Psagot], but we said the attackers’ aim was for us not to be here and for there not to be peace talks,” Bar explained.
“There are extremists on both sides interested in continuing the conflict, but we want to promote peace.”
A majority of MKs want peace, because most Israelis want peace, even though leaders can’t find a solution, Bar added.
Labor leadership candidate Isaac Herzog expressed hope that the current talks “will bloom and bear fruit.”
“There is a direct linkage between peace and the wellbeing of the people in Israel and the region,” Herzog stated.
“We believe in a two-state solution and that we have a partner for talks.”
Herzog called for Abbas and Netanyahu to work with all their might to reach a peace agreement, and said he hopes they will soon “bring a historic revolution to the Middle East.”