To top it off, many Arab countries are fed up with Palestinian extremism, which has yielded nothing positive for more than 70 years.
Sitting in the room while Trump and Netanyahu made their announcements were the ambassadors of the UAE, Oman and Bahrain. This, a day after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas implored the Arabs to boycott the event, just as he had refused to take Trump’s phone call a day earlier. Immediately following the announcement, Egyptian, Saudi, Emirati, Omani and Bahraini press all urged the Palestinians to seize this opportunity to engage meaningfully with the Israelis. This public rebuke of the Palestinians by their Arab cousins is momentous. Beyond huge. Cosmically game-changing.
Not at all surprising, but disappointing nevertheless, is Abbas’s unequivocal rejection of the American-Israeli overture to negotiate. As have all Palestinian leaders, he continues to tow an absolutist, obstructionist line. Even Yasser Arafat was prepared to pretend to accede to negotiations with the Israelis. Abbas has done nothing to indicate a true interest in negotiating peace.
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