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WHICH SIDE IS SERIOUS ABOUT PEACE?On Thursday, [George] Mitchell met Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's new prime minister, who is leading a government dominated by hawks.
Israeli officials quoted Netanyahu as telling Mitchell that his right-leaning government wanted the Palestinians to first recognise Israel as a Jewish state.
Palestinians have long rejected such explicit recognition of the Jewish nature of a state where one in five people is Arab.
Netanayahu has yet to give a commitment to restart US-backed talks with Abbas on core issues such as statehood borders and the future of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees. (Al Jazeera)
As he met Israeli leaders on Thursday, a senior official in Mr Netanyahu's office said the new prime minister had told Mr Mitchell: "Israel expects the Palestinians to first recognise Israel as a Jewish state before talking about two states for two peoples."
Under previous agreements, the Palestinians have recognised the right of the state of Israel to exist.
But correspondents say recognising it as a Jewish state would be tantamount to abandoning one of the Palestinians' key demands in final-status talks, the "right to return" of Palestinian refugees.
In a statement after Friday's meeting, Mr Erekat said the new Israeli condition "serves no other purpose than to stall progress towards negotiations".
"The PLO [Palestine Liberation Organisation] has already recognised the state of Israel. Netanyahu refuses to even mention a Palestinian state," he said.
"Until the Netanyahu government unequivocally affirms its support for the two-state solution, implements Israel's Road Map [2003 peace plan] obligations and abides by previous agreements, Palestinians have no partner for peace," Mr Erekat added. (BBC)
Recognize as the Jewish nation? Israel is not for the Israelis, but for the Jews. Sounds like sheer racism.
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