Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:

According to numerous reports, instead of taking real steps for peace – which would involve ending the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) promotion of Palestinian Arab terrorism against innocent Israelis, PA dictator Mahmoud Abbas intends to use his upcoming meeting with President Donald Trump to promote the misleadingly-named “Arab Peace Initiative” (“API”).  (See, e.g., “At White House, Abbas to Ask Trump to Back Arab Peace Plan,” AP, May 2, 2017.)  The API, first sponsored by Saudi Arabia in 2002 as the “Saudi Peace Initiative,” and then endorsed by the Arab League, is a plan for Israel’s destruction.

The API demands that Israel must make every concession first, and then the Arabs will consider whether to have “normalized relations” with Israel.  “Normalized relations” is a vague term that avoids recognizing Israel as the Jewish State.  The API also requires Israel to retreat to the indefensible 1949 Armistice lines; establishes a terrorist Palestinian Arab State in Israel’s heartland with the eastern half of Jerusalem (including the Jewish people’s holiest sites) as its capital; and calls for a morally and legally baseless “right of return” for millions of descendants of Arab “refugees” to move into and overrun Israel – thereby inundating Israel with hostile Arabs and ending Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.  (The “Palestinian refugees” were not indigenous to Israel.  To be considered to be a “Palestinian refugee,” one only had to live or work in the area for two years!  Moreover, most “Palestinian refugees” left Israel voluntarily, at the request of the Arab League, so that Arab armies could more easily murder Israel’s Jewish citizens when six Arab armies invaded Israel in 1948.) 

Furthermore, the Arab Peace Initiative does nothing to end the real reason why there is no peace:  namely, the PA’s constant incitement of hatred and terror against the Jewish people and payments to Palestinian Arab terrorists to murder Jews. 

In sum, the “Arab Peace Initiative” is a non-starter for anyone serious about real peace.   As ZOA previously outlined (See “ZOA: Make Key Demands of Abbas at Undeserved Upcoming White House Meeting: ZOA Urges: Demand Abbas Stop Incitement/Paying Families of Jew-Killers; End Hamas Alliance; Rename Schools/Streets Named After Jew-Killers,” Apr. 24, 2017), if Abbas is serious about peace, Abbas should finally comply with his existing Oslo obligations to end incitement, etc.   Abbas must, for a demonstrable period of time, meet his following pre-existing obligations: 

(1) discontinue PA and PLO payments ($300 million annually) to terrorists and families of terrorists who murdered Jews;

(2) rename the dozens of schools, sports clubs, streets, public squares, children’s camps etc. in the Palestinian Authority that are named after murderers of Jews;

(3) discontinue PA official television and newspaper programs promoting Jew-hatred, Jew-killings and honoring murderers of Jews;

(4) completely revamp the PA textbooks and curricula that are teaching Palestinian Arab children to become murderers of Jews and to destroy Israel;

(5) change all official PA symbols (including official PA emblems, stamps, stationary, etc.) that show Israel as a Palestinian Arab state;

(6) cease all payments to the Hamas regime in Gaza;

(7) end all of Abbas’ demands that a future Palestinian state be ethnically cleansed of Jews;

(8) formally declare illegal, disassociate from, and remove from the PA government all designated terrorist groups including Hamas, the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ); and

(9) make speeches by Abbas and Imams condemning all Palestinian terrorist attacks including car rammings and knifings against Jews. All of these points are required under the signed Oslo and other agreements.

Nor should anyone be fooled by Hamas’s supposed new statement.  Hamas’ has not abrogated its charter calling for the murder of every Jews, or its intention to destroy the Jewish State.  Hamas’ possible “acceptance” of a Palestinian state (without recognizing Israel) is a mere interim stage in Hamas’s goal of destroying Israel.