The Palestinians Throw A Tantrum: "Netanyahu Does Not Believe In Peace"

It's to be expected of the Palestinians, but they've set a new record in self-defeating rejectionism today.

The Netanyahu government has just been sworn in today and Fatah's capo del tutti Abbas and his assorted thugs are already kicking and screaming:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas charged on Wednesday that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu did not believe in peace, urging the international community to exert pressure on him to accept a two-state solution.

"It's obvious that Netanyahu does not believe in the two-state solution and the agreements signed with the Palestinians and does not want to stop settlement construction," Abbas said.

"Therefore, we must tell the world that this man does not believe in peace and as such we can't deal with him." Abbas said that he was nevertheless prepared to talk to representatives of the new government if he sensed that Netanyahu was willing to move forward with the peace process and accept the two-state solution.

Abbas added that Netanyahu's plan to focus on boosting the Palestinian economy was insufficient as long as it doesn't have a political content.

"The Palestinian issue is not an economic problem," he said. "This is, first and foremost, a political case."

Yes, the last thing Fatah's chief mafioso wants is for his people to actually have a real economy. Not only would it cut into Fatah's monopolies and rackets given out to various cronies, it might actually cut into that lovely donor aid that the Palestinians receive and that Fatah skims a healthy chunk of right off the top.

And who knows? With a real economy, the Palestinians might actually decide that living in peace next to the Jews is preferable to living in misery under a corrupt kleptocracy.And.We.Can't.Have That.

Admittedly, Netanyahu was silly to propose it knowing that Abbas and his people run things and would never give it the time of day, but it was still the most common sense solution. That is, if your goal is to have a functioning state living next to Israel in peace instead of nurturing revanchist fantasies of destroying it and replacing it with greater Arafatistan.

Another Fatah spokesmouth, Fahmi Za'areer was also heard from:

"The right-wing in Israel is talking about the so-called economic peace to avoid fulfilling Israel's obligations under the terms of the Oslo Accords and other agreements," he said.

"Any talk that does not include the principle of land for peace and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state will be doomed to failure."

Za'areer said that the Palestinians were not afraid of the new right-wing government in Israel "because our people won't wait forever for the peace process to succeed." The Netanyahu government, he added, is not a partner to the free world or its values."

This, from a group that has yet to fulfill any of their commitments under either Oslo or the Road Map! And as for the new Israeli government not being a partner of the free world or its values, I doubt Mr. Za'areer has the foggiest notion of what those values are. For the record, they don't include executing gays, honor killings, turning children into homicide bombers, deliberately targeting non-combatants, paying stipends to convicted murderers in Israeli jails, rigid government control of the media, making people who murder kids 'honorary citizens' or insisting that your territory be Jew-free.

Then we have the right half of Yasir Arafat's forked tongue, Saeb Erekat, who drives a BMW while his people live in squalor:

Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian Authority negotiator, said it was clear from Lieberman's statements on Wednesday that the government is not committed to the US backed road map for peace.

"So why do people blame Hamas" for not committing to previous agreements signed "when Lieberman said he is not committed?" he asked.

Actually, Saeb ol' buddy, what Lieberman said was that Israel was committed to the Road Map, just not to the gang rape that occurred courtesy of Condi Rice at Annapolis. It's the 21st century, Saeb, and you just can't lie like that in public anymore and get away with it. Well, okay, maybe in the New York Times and al-Jazeerah you still can, but it's just not as easy as it was in the old days.

Still, if you and the boys want to ditch all the previous agreements and start from scratch, I'm sure the Israelis are more than willing to accommodate you and get back some of the ground they lost back when you had Olmert and Tzipi Livni to sucker in.

Bottom line? Yet another episode of Palestinian rejectionism.

Without waiting to see what Netanyahu actually proposes or puts in play, they're letting him know that they're not prepared to negotiate or concede a damned thing. They either get everything they want no matter what or they'll accept nothing at all, just like they've always said.

The thing is,by putting this out there, they've also sent a message back to Netanyahu that anything reasonable he might of considered proposing is out of the question and off the table.And given that the Israelis have a lot more pressing concerns then pleasing the likes of Abbas and Erekat,they might just have picked the wrong time to overplay their hand.