Dear Palestinian Authority: I don't think "negotiate" means what you think it means.

As part of a deal for the release of over 100 terrorists being held in Israeli jails, Abbas and his Palestinian Authority have made a pledge to negotiate with Israel for nine months, with the goal of reaching a final status agreement. To date, 52 of these murderers and assassins have been released. Israel is holding up its end of the bargain.  But Abbas has repeatedly stated that he does not intend to make any concessions in the negotiations.  Such statements were reported again today.  See http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4459571,00.html , http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174639#.UpoIVMRDss8

Is Abbas so dense that he simply does not understand what the word "negotiate" means?  How does he intend to reach a final agreement if, as reported, he will "never give up an ounce of the Palestinians' demands"?  With the negotiations cloaked in secrecy, one has to wonder, what exactly is occurring there, if the PA is not prepared to offer one single concession.  And how is it, exactly, that John Kerry has the gall to reprimand Israel, to threaten another intifada, when Abbas is making such statements?

It is possible, of course, that Abbas is simply posturing for PR.  It is possible that he does not want to incur the type of backlash that he faced a year ago when he admitted that he does not have a right to return to Safed.  See http://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-i-wasnt-giving-up-right-of-return-i-was-just-speaking-personally/  But he must realize that he cannot present his people with a fait accompli and expect them to accept it.  He must begin preparing his people for the concessions that they will have to make to achieve peace.  Where two groups hold positions that are diametrically opposed, each group must be prepared to give up something in order to live in peace.  Abbas does not seem to understand this most basic principle, a principle that most children learn on the playground.

At this point it certainly appears that while Abbas and the PA were more than happy to accept the bribe of the release of murderers, and to welcome them home as heroes, they did so under false pretenses.  They clearly never intended to live up to their end of the deal, which is, to negotiate in good faith.  Indeed, in releasing those murderers, Israel has already made a huge concession towards peace, one that is irreversible and that has not been given the recognition that it is due.  Abbas and the PA have still made none, and have made it clear that they never intended to.

Update, 3/22/14: In case anyone did not get the message last time, here he is saying the same thing again.

"The PA has already formally refused to recognize Israel as a Jewish state throughout talks, stating that 'the Arab states will never recognize a Jewish state.'  In addition, the PA Chairman will reportedly only agree to extend talks if Israel allows a "right of return" for Palestinian Arabs, free terrorist leaders, and withdraw from Judea and Samaria."

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/178770#.Uy3Tiq1dVXc

Double Standard for Israel Strikes Again at NPR

A couple of days ago NPR published a piece on the plight of the Eritrean refugees in Israel, highlighting the complaints that Israel has been slow to process asylum applications, leaving refugees in legal limbo while the applications are pending.  

Interestingly, searching NPR's website, I did not see any stories about the plight of the Eritrean refugees in Egypt, where they are kidnapped for human trafficking. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/21/in-sinai-i-saw-hell-refugees-are-easy-prey-for-bru/?page=all.  I also did not see any stories on NPR about the plight of the Eritrean refugees in Jordan, where they are deported to Yemen, or stories about Eritrean refugees in Yemen, where they are imprisoned.  http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/05/15/jordan-don-t-deport-eritrean-refugees-yemen http://www.unhcr.org/4de64e9a6.html.  Better to just complain about Israel, where they are "slow to process applications."  

The story about the refugees in Israel also did not mention that these refugees currently number about 1% of the population of Israel -- a big number for such a small country.  That's like 3 million asylum seekers coming to the US in less than two years, all of whom need assistance with food, housing, education, employment, and language, all at taxpayer expense.  Usually the US gets less than 100,000 asylum seekers a year.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asylum_in_the_United_States That was also not mentioned in the story.