RAMALLAH — The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as their capital but do not seek to divide the city, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday. He also said he did not want to flood Israel with millions of Palestinian refugees.“We don’t want to redivide Jerusalem,” he told 300 Israeli students and young activists at the Muqata, his presidential compound. “We would leave the city open, and have two municipalities with one governing body above them. This is the meaning of coexistence,” he said to raucous applause.Abbas also accused Israel’s current government of discriminating against the Palestinians vis-à-vis the distribution of water, claiming that Israelis are permitted to consume 12 times more water than Palestinians. “We are humans, you need to take a shower, I need to take a shower. You need to drink, I need to drink,” he said. “We are similar, why do you take 12 times more?”The Palestinian leader admitted that anti-Israeli incitement exists and that it needs to be confronted. However, he argued that the Palestinians for years have been willing to discuss incitement in a trilateral committee with the Israelis and the Americans, but that such efforts had failed due to Israeli obstinacy.
Mahmoud Abbas with Labor MK Hilik Bar, February 16, 2014 (photo credit: courtesy)
Mahmoud Abbas with Labor MK Hilik Bar, February 16, 2014 (photo credit: courtesy)
“There is incitement on my side, I admit it. I admit it, but let’s discuss it. And the Israelis don’t want to admit it,” he said. In order to talk fairly about incitement, which he said exists on both sides, “a referee” from a third party was needed. “Incitement is a germ that would harm the atmosphere and the desire for peace, so let’s remove it. We want to remove it but we haven’t heard any response” from the Israeli side, he said.
Abbas also responded to claims made last week by Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz, who had called him the world’s worst anti-Semite. ”Not the second or third worst, but the worst anti-Semite,” Abbas said, without mentioning Steinitz’s name. Why? What am I saying? I recognize the state of Israel. Where is the anti-Semitism? I go everywhere around the world. Wherever I go, I meet the Jewish leadership, in New York, AIPAC, Washington DC, London, Paris, South Africa, Latin America, Canada, everywhere. We want to make peace with you, so we meet with everyone. A person who says this about me, frankly, does not want peace.”The PA president also vehemently protested the often-made claim that he denied the Holocaust in his doctorate, lamenting that rumors to that effect continue to be spread by his opponents. “How do I deny the Holocaust? Did you read the book? No. So read the book and see if I have denied the Holocaust. I have written about it and I know that millions of Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.”Abbas also asserted that he would not demand that five million Palestinians refugees and their descendants enter Israel “to destroy” the state, but insisted that the refugee problem needs to be addressed. “All that we said was, come let’s put the refugee question on the table, because refugees is a topic that must be resolved to bring an end to conflict. But we do not seek, and we will not seek, to flood Israel with millions in order to change its social culture. This is nonsense that you read in the Hebrew media and elsewhere,” he said.(Last month, speaking to a group of Palestinians from East Jerusalem, Abbas said that he could not negotiate away the absolute right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to sovereign Israel, and expressed other hard-line positions on core issues.)
Israeli students and young activists listen to Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, February 16, 2014 (photo credit: courtesy)
Israeli students and young activists listen to Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, February 16, 2014 (photo credit: courtesy)
During Sunday’s unprecedented meeting of Israel students from across the country, organized by Labor MK Hilik Bar, the chair of the Knesset Caucus for the Promotion of a Solution for the Israeli-Arab Conflict and the One Voice organization, Abbas reiterated his willingness to sign a peace agreement with Israel, but largely insisted on his well-known positions on the core issues. He refused to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, saying that he recognizes the State of Israel and that had to suffice.While he stressed that the Palestinians do not want to return to violence, he expressed frustration at what he termed Israeli policies that would obstruct the peace process. “When you say, ‘This is my land,’ where do you want me to build my state?” he asked. “When I sleep, I’m afraid to wake up and see an outpost here in the presidential compound,” he said.During a Q&A session, he attacked Israel for allowing settler violence to continue unabated. “It’s a big shame on you, what settlers do against us; without any reasons they come and kill, uproot trees,” he said. “The slaughter us, they kill my sheep and my livestock. It’s a shame on you. And by the way, every time we take one step toward peace it takes us back 20 steps, because our people wonder, what is peace with these people?”Despite occasional outbursts of frustration and anger over Israeli policies, his core message to the students and young political activists was that only a two-state solution could bring peace to both peoples.“There is no other solution in this region except peace,” he said. “I received more than one indication from Hamas that they would stand behind me in case of a peace agreement.”Abbas refused to say what the Palestinians would do if no agreement is reached in April, at the end of the nine months slated for the current negotiations. ”If peace does not happen at the end of this nine months,” he said, “we are not going to go back to violence, but put yourself in our shoes and tell us what to do.”

Danon: We Don't Meed Permission to Pray at Kotel

Danny Danon facetiously said that the Jewish people “are grateful” to Mahmoud Abbas for “recognizing the Jewish right to pray at the Kotel.-By David Lev-First Publish: 2/17/2014, 2:15 AM-Israelnationalnews

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas-Flash 90
Speaking Sunday night, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Danon facetiously said that the Jewish people “are grateful” to Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas for “recognizing the Jewish right to pray at the Kotel.” Abbas made the comments earlier Sunday, speaking to Israeli students in Ramallah.“We do not need the permission of anyone to pray at the Kotel, certainly not from the Palestinian leadership,” Danon said. “Jews have prayed, Jews pray, and Jews will pray at the Kotel forever.”Besides presenting his views on the Kotel, Abbas also discussed numerous other issues. Abbas said he would never recognize Israel as a Jewish state. “You want to go the UN to change the name of the state, then do so. I only know and recognize Israel, I do not know a 'democratic, Jewish state.'”He also said he would not allow Jews to remain in “Palestine,” and would demand that hundreds of thousands of Jews in Judea and Samaria be forced to move. “We will not equate the Palestinians who have been here for thousands of years with the settlers,” he said.“Why does the government not stop the settlers? They destroy trees and damage peace. “Not only do the settlers steal our land, but they kill us too. The must be stopped.”Hatnu'a leader Tzipi Livni praised the trip by students to Ramallah, calking it “very important. This is exactly what is needed – curious young people who are asking the hard questions,” she said.

One Dead in Akko Gas Tank Explosion

One person killed and at least two others injured in an explosion in a residential building in Akko.
By Elad Benari-First Publish: 2/17/2014, 2:35 AM-Israelnationalnews

Site of Akko explosion
Site of Akko explosion-Magen David Adom
One person was killed and four others were injured in an explosion in a residential building in the old city of Akko on Sunday night.Magen David Adom said that one of the victims was in serious condition, two in moderate condition, and two more in light condition. They were evacuated by ambulance to the hospital in Nahariya.It is believed that the explosion was caused by a gas tank. Part of the building collapsed as a result of the blast, and at least 10 people were trapped inside. Paramedics were able to communicate with those trapped in the building.In a similar incident last month, a couple and their two-year-old baby were killed in a gas tank explosion in Jerusalem.The blast occurred on the third floor of a four storey building in the city’s Gilo neighborhood.A similar incident in Netanya killed four people and wounded 88 in June of 2011.