(JNS) Following the Geneva peace talks in December 1973, then-Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban quipped that the Palestinians “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”
It’s a clever line that’s been quoted for decades, particularly by those who have agreed to all kinds of deals that they hoped would solve the “conflict.”
But it’s time to put the false rhetoric to rest and acknowledge that the Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Gaza haven’t missed a single opportunity to pursue the goal of eliminating the State of Israel. Groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad make no bones about this objective.
Their rivals in Fatah, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s faction, are sneakier and more patient. They follow PLO chief Yasser Arafat’s “plan of stages,” which involves accomplishing the same mission, but more methodically—by playing the “peace” game. And pulling the wool over the eyes of the West.
In this respect, the PA is more dangerous than Hamas. While the latter is designated as a terrorist organization by the European Union and other countries now recognizing a Palestinian state, the former continues to be treated internationally as a legitimate entity and potential partner for peace with Israel.
Not by the Palestinians, of course. They hate and ridicule Abbas, which is why he’s refused to hold elections for the past two decades.
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed out during his speech on Friday before the United Nations General Assembly—after the PA observers and fellow Muslim rejectionists staged a silly walkout, then ran to watch the presentation on TV in another room—”Nearly 90% of Palestinians supported [Hamas’s] Oct. 7 attack.”
He went on to stress to the “leaders of France, Britain, Australia, Canada and other countries [that] unconditionally recognized a Palestinian state” that the Palestinians—”both in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria, the ‘West Bank,’ as you call it”—not only supported the atrocity, but “celebrated [it]. They danced on the rooftops; they threw candies … just the way they celebrated another horror: 9/11.”
Netanyahu proceeded to excoriate the leaders recognizing a Palestinian state for conveying the “very clear message [that] murdering Jews pays off.”
He continued, “When the most savage terrorists on earth are effusively praising your decision, you didn’t do something right; you did something wrong. Horribly wrong. Your disgraceful decision will encourage terrorism against Jews and against innocent people everywhere. It will be a mark of shame on all of you.”
He then addressed the claims of those professing to “believe in a two-state solution, where the Jewish State of Israel will live side by side in peace with a Palestinian state.”
Yes, well, he said, “There’s only one problem with that. The Palestinians don’t believe in this solution. They never have. They don’t want a state next to Israel. They want a Palestinian state instead of Israel. That’s why every time they were offered a Palestinian state but were required to end the conflict with Israel and recognize the Jewish state, every time over the decades, they turned it down. That is why every time they were given territory, they used it to attack us. In fact, they effectively had a Palestinian state—in Gaza.”
What—he asked—”did they do with that state? Peace? Coexistence?”
No—he answered—”they attacked us time and time again, totally unprovoked. They fired rockets into our cities; they murdered our children; they turned Gaza into a terror base from which they committed the Oct. 7 massacre.”
Here, he presented the “uncomfortable truth: The persistent Palestinian rejection of a Jewish state in any boundary is what has driven this conflict for over a century. It is still driving it. It’s not the absence of a Palestinian state; it’s the presence of a Jewish state.”
Thankfully, he emphasized that that the “so-called moderate” PA—with its pay-for-slay policy and other forms of terror-glorification—is not better than Hamas. And that its promises over the years to undergo reform are empty.
This reminder was especially important given Abbas’s reiteration of those false vows in his video oratory on Sept. 22 at the UNGA. Naturally, it was dripping with typical deception about a commitment to the “rule of law,” while filled with lies about Israel.
There was one honest thread throughout, however: open disdain and loathing for the Jewish state. Nothing new there.
Even the Israeli left has been having a tough time ignoring this reality, as hard as it might try. This explains its campaign to portray Netanyahu as a villain, rather than attempting the harder task of praising Abbas. The best it can muster is referring to some made-up Palestinian entity or group who will be responsible for governing Gaza when the war is over.
Netanyahu, who concluded on an optimistic note about peace in the Middle East with “forward- looking Arab and Muslim leaders,” highlighted that “giving the Palestinians a state one mile from Jerusalem after Oct. 7 is like giving Al Qaeda a state one mile from New York City after Sept. 11.”
Calling this “sheer madness,” he declared, “Israel will not allow you to shove a terror state down our throats. We will not commit national suicide because you don’t have the guts to face down a hostile media and antisemitic mobs demanding Israel’s blood.”
Amen.
Netanyahu was articulating what most Israelis have come to accept: that Abba Eban was wrong. The Palestinians take every opportunity to kill and turn the world against Jews.
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