Abbas is ready?
Your headline “‘Abbas has decided to sign peace deal with Israel’” (May 12) is in quotation marks, as if it’s quoting someone. But I can’t find that statement in the body of Yaakov Katz’s frontpage article, nor in his column in the same issue (“Don’t lose the blame game,” Editor’s Notes), leading me to wonder who exactly said this.
Regardless of who said it, it’s a vacuous statement. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has decided to sign a peace deal? Does this mean that previously, he had not intended to sign one under any circumstances, or that now he has decided to sign one under any circumstance?
If Abbas’s willingness depends on circumstances – mainly the terms of the deal – then what has changed? Have Palestinian demands changed? All the article says is that he has dropped his preconditions for negotiations and declared a willingness to discuss land swaps. How does this differ from the situation that existed for years prior to former-president Barack Obama’s imposition of a settlement freeze on Israel? If it doesn’t, why are you wasting my time?
Then there’s the statement of what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s game plan is – sans attribution. So basically, it is no more than a guess. Likewise the statement that Abbas’s position has softened due to the intercession of Ronald Lauder. Here, too, no evidence of cause is offered other than the fact that the two met before the purported thaw. At best, Mr. Katz is employing the logical fallacy of post hoc, ergo propter hoc.
I can’t tell whether this is supposed to be news, an analysis or an editorial. MICHAEL BERKOWITZ Alon Shvut
There is little doubt that Yaakov Katz and his “sources” – probably most prominently Ronald Lauder – are motivated by the sincere desire to chart a course under the aegis of the American president that leads, finally, to a peaceful resolution of the long-simmering Israel-Palestinian conflict. However, in their zeal, they provide no tangible evidence that the Palestinian leadership is ready to step back from its intransigent demands.
Among other lingering examples: Neither Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas nor his associates have expressed readiness to accept Israel as a Jewish state, agree to a demilitarized state, accept the settlement blocs, recognize Israel’s sovereignty in Jerusalem or forgo the demand for the resettlement of millions of Palestinian “refugees” in an Israel forced back to the pre-1967 lines – the “Auschwitz” lines, in Abba Eban’s memorable phrase. This is to say nothing of the continuing acts of terrorism and the hatred that is a staple of Palestinian propaganda perpetuated in the PA’s school textbooks.
One need not be a cynic to conclude that the wily Abbas, in his pose as a messenger of peace, is seeking to seduce the Trump administration in its commendable commitment to achieve a deal between Israel and the Palestinian leadership. JACK E. FRIEDMAN Jerusalem
I was extremely disappointed with your article. It was mere conjecture, starting with the use of a quote from unnamed sources for the headline, and then building up the story from that base.
Yaakov Katz then attempts to imagine what is going through Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s mind – how he is thinking and what his response or non-response will be to US President Donald Trump’s imagined pressure. It is outrageous that The Jerusalem
Post tries to pass off opinion as news. I feel insulted that the editor in chief thinks he can get away with such an approach to his readers. DUNN RABINOWITZ Rehovot
The Jerusalem Post reports that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is ready to make peace. Few here believe him.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he wants no preconditions before talks. But he should insist on one post-condition for any deal that’s signed: Any infraction by either side – rockets, suicide bombers or whatever – will allow the side attacked to retaliate with full force, and the US will support such retaliations politically, militarily and financially. This should be in writing and made known publicly. AVIGDOR BONCHEK Jerusalem