By David Shayne, , Seattle
Linda Frank defends PA President Abbas after he was caught stating he envisioned a Jew-free Palestine and distorts the record to make it look like Abbas and the Palestinian Arabs on the whole are ready to live in peace and harmony with their Jewish neighbors (Letters, Aug. 16). Unfortunately, she is sorely mistaken. What Abbas actually said — not in 2011, but just last month: “In a final resolution we would not see the presence of a single Israeli — civilian or soldier — on our lands.”
This quote is not from Pamela Geller’s website, but The Guardian.
So no Israeli civilians — does any one seriously think this quote includes the 1.6 million Israeli Arabs, or does he intend for a Palestinian State to be Judenrein? He is not the only PA official to so state — in 2011, USA Today claimed PA negotiator Maen Areikat said expressly no Jews in a future Palestinian State (the article did point out he hotly denied he meant “Jews” — only “Israelis,” as if there was a difference as explained above).
After whitewashing Abbas’s thinly veiled anti-Jewish pronouncement, Frank repeats the lie the Israel is “dispossessing” the Palestinians and committing “weekly acts of violence.” Really? Who is committing the violence? Palestinans, often children, constantly attack Israelis with stones and other weapons. Last March, a 2-year-old girl was sent to the hospital in critical condition from injuries she sustained from Arab stone- throwing youth. A year earlier, a father and his infant son were outright killed under similar circumstances. There is violence, unfortunately, in the West Bank, but the Arab side perpetuates most of it.
And as for dispossession, the Arab populations of Gaza and the West Bank have tripled since 1967 — and this is according to the “Jerusalem Fund” a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel website. Exactly how is this “dispossession?”
Nobody likes the occupation. Most Israelis want it to end as soon as possible. But peace has to be a two-way street and the Palestinians have to be wiling to accept Jews as their neighbors and stop attacking them in reality, not just in Ms. Frank’s mind.