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Saudis Propose Palestinian Statehood Without Sovereignty

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Saudis Propose Palestinian Statehood Without Sovereignty

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

How is that possible? Only by offering statehood in name only, not the real thing, an offer even longtime Israeli collaborator Abbas can’t accept.

According to the New York Times, he met with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) in Riyadh.

“According to Palestinian, Arab and European officials who have heard Mr. Abbas’s version of the conversation, (MBS) presented a plan that would be more tilted toward the Israelis than any ever embraced by the American government, one that presumably no Palestinian leader could ever accept,” the Times reported.

It was an offer designed to be rejected. Palestinians would get the only type non-sovereign state Israel and Washington would accept.

It would be comprised of isolated bantustans on worthless scrubland, surrounded by expanding settlements encroaching on their land, stealing it, barriers they’re forbidden to approach, ghettoizing them.

Jerusalem would become Israel’s exclusive capital, East Jerusalem increasingly off-limits to them. Diaspora Palestinians would have no right of return.

Israel would be free to exploit Palestinian resources, they way things are today.

Did Trump and MBS conspire with Israel against long-suffering Palestinians? Was the plan concocted in Washington, Tel Aviv, Riyadh or all three cities?

Palestinians are enraged about a scheme no one in their leadership would accept. Will Trump compound the outrage by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s exclusive capital in a speech coming on Wednesday? 

If so, he’ll plunge a dagger into the heart of the already moribund peace process, killing it with no hope for resuscitation, halting talks before they’ve barely begun, proving again that Washington is no impartial broken on peace or anything else.

PLO and Hamas officials said they found the Saudi plan insulting and unacceptable, senior Hamas official Hassan Yousef saying “(i)f the Palestinian leadership were to accept” MBS’ proposal, “the Palestinian people would not let them remain.”

PLO and Hamas officials, along with a senior Lebanese one said MBS told Abbas if he rejected the proposal, he’d be pressured to resign, another leader replacing him who’ll accept the unacceptable.

Riyadh and Ramallah deny MBS proposed what’s explained above. According to the Times, “the main points of the Saudi proposal as told to Mr. Abbas were confirmed by many people briefed on the discussions between” him and MBS.

Palestinian MK Ahmad Tibi said similar ideas were proposed by Washington and Tel Aviv - a Palestinian state with “moral sovereignty,” not the real thing, without East Jerusalem, no right of return, no halt in settlement construction, no Palestinian rights according to international law.

A previous article discussed MBS conspiring with Israel against Iran, throwing Palestinians overboard in the process.

According to an unnamed senior Lebanese official, Abbas has two months to accept MBS’s offer or resign. A third option is less palatable, the way Yasser Arafat was disposed of.

VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at [email protected].

 

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

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