Despite diplomatic talk of a two-state solution and eventual coexistence, a senior Palestinian Authority official admitted in a televised address last week that the overall goal for all Palestinian Arabs remains the eradication of the Jewish state.

peaking on Lebanese public television, the Palestinian Authority's ambassador to Beirut, Abbas Zaki, stated that the PLO "has not changed its platform even one iota" from its inception when the Yasser Arafat-led organization openly advocated Israel's phased destruction.

The PLO is the umbrella organization started by Arafat and now led by US-backed Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas that forms the backbone of the Palestinian Authority.

Zaki went on to explain that with the Palestinians inching ever closer to obtaining control over the eastern half of Jerusalem, Israel's ideological collapse is imminent.

At that point, the Palestinian Arabs will "begin to progress with our own ideology, Allah willing, and drive [the Jews] out of all of Palestine [sic]."

Abbas' representative in Lebanon also openly praised the use of terrorist violence against Israelis, insisting that the absence of anti-Israel terrorism would make the political negotiations fruitless.

Zaki's televised speech was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.