Hamas, PA reject any peace plan without right of return

[Kurska]

The Palestinian Authority said that it would reject any peace initiative that requires Palestinians to relinquish the right of return.

Nabil Sha’ath, member of the PA negotiating team, said that the right of return was a basic right, which the Palestinians couldn’t give up.

“We will reject any American peace plan that calls on us to give up one of our basic rights – the right of return for refugees,” Sha’ath, a former PA foreign minister who played a major role in the signing of the Oslo Accords, said.

Sha’ath noted that the Oslo Accords that were signed between Israel and the PLO cal for holding discussions on major issues like Jerusalem, refugees, borders and security.

“How can Washington plan for such a solution?” he asked, referring to the report about US President Barack Obama’s new peace initiative. “There are no contacts between Washington and the PA on this issue.”

Sha’ath claimed that members of the Quartet – the US, EU, UN and Russia – were recently forced to postpone their meeting to discuss the status of the Middle East peace talks because Washington was opposed to a pro-Palestinian statement that they were planning to issue.

The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip described the Obama initiative as an “alarm bell that jeopardizes the right of return.”

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=217641

Well there you go, what exactly is the point of negotiations now? The PA has plainly stated it will accept nothing less than Israel committing national suicide on the negotiation table. Wonderful, there will be no peace in our time. The Palestinians will try to force the issue at the GA claiming that Israelis outrageously won't consent to their own destruction. It could very well be the issue that rips the UN apart as this will play right into the hands of right wingers (especially in the united states) who have always viewed the UN as nothing more than a international attempt to subject democratic countries to the whims of authoritarian ones and at least in this case they will be right. Prepare for massive cuts to UN funding by the United States, followed by other international moves to mitigate the UN's influence.

War will probably follow, goaded on by the dictators of the middle east desperate to deflect attention from themselves. Their useful idiots, who have for 60 years put the focus on tiny democratic Israel instead of the millions with no democratic representation and far less human rights than the Palestinian citizens in Israel enjoy and less still than the non-citizens of the occupied territories, will continue to play their part.

I have never felt that all is lost more than I do at this moment and I fear for the future of the millions caught up in this game, no matter if they are Israeli, Palestinian and other Arabs. In the end they are all going to bleed, and I can't help but feeling there will be a lot of blood.