The war against the Jews

Monday, 12th November 2007

Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator for the Palestine Liberation Organization, has a reputation as a ‘moderate’ Palestinian. Ha’aretz reports:

Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator for the Palestine Liberation Organization, rejected on Monday the government's demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. In an interview with Israel Radio, Erekat said that ‘no state in the world connects its national identity to a religious identity.'

Well that seems clear enough to me. End of discussion, surely?

Not a chance. Condi Rice is twisting Israel’s arms behind its back to force it to make ‘concessions’ to a belligerent adversary who refuses to recognise its right to exist at all. That is what is being done to no other state in the world. And of course, Saeb Erekat reveals that he also refuses to recognise that the Jews are not just members of a religion but are a people — and the only people for whom Israel was ever their nation state, a Jewish nation state that existed for hundreds of years.

Erekat’s is the authentic voice of unending Arab rejectionism of Jewish peoplehood, the cause of the terrible six-decade Israel/Arab impasse. Yet it is to his belligerency and bigotry that America is in the process of delivering up Israel, to be sacrificed on the altar of presidential vanity and hubris.

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peter g

November 13th, 2007 1:53pm

Funny how people such as Saeb Erekat convieniently forget Pakistan when attempting to compare Israel with other countries. Funny that. Indeed, why might that be, given it is only a year older than Israel, was formed from another part of the British Empire? .......... oh yes I forgot, both India and Pakistan accepted Partition and formed their own States upon the withdrawl of the British.

eliXelx

November 13th, 2007 2:41pm

"no state in the world connects its national identity to a religious identity." I suppose that leaves all the Islamic Republics as non-states then! I suspect that Iran won't be happy to be disqualified from the commomwealth of nations by Arafat's water-carrier.

John S

November 13th, 2007 5:31pm

The Muslims are the only ones who so firmly tie religious identity to the state that they have their own organization, the Organization of the Islamic Congress.

John

November 13th, 2007 5:33pm

Come off it, Melanie. It's high time Israel was forced to stop its land and water grab.

Yosef

November 13th, 2007 9:44pm

In response to John; Israel Is smaller now than it was in 1968 so what "land grab" are you referring to? The overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews are prepared to see ownership of some of the most religiously and historically important parts of the Land of Israel in the hands of the Arabs for the sake of peace. It's a pity that the Arabs motivated by a true desire to grab land, the whole land, are not also willing to make peace.

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Melanie Phillips is a Daily Mail columnist. She also writes for the Jewish Chronicle and is a panellist on BBC Radio Four's Moral Maze. Her most recent book is 'The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth and Power', published by Encounter.

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