Palestine: Kerry's credibility crashes as Abbas's intransigence increases

What is the meaning of a Jewish State? As I told you before, a Jewish State does not mean one has to be a Jew. It means merely a State-where the Jews are in the majority, otherwise all the citizens have the same status. If the State were called by the name "Palestine," - I said if - then all would be Palestinian citizens If the State would be given, another name - I think it would be given another name - because Palestine is neither a Jewish nor an Arab name. As far as the Arabs are concerned, and we have the evidence of the Arab historian, Hitti, that there was no such a thing as "Palestine" at all: Palestine is not an Arab name. Palestine is also not a Jewish name. When the Greeks were our enemies, in order not to annoy the Jews, they gave different names to the streets. So, maybe the name of Palestine will be changed. But whatever the name of the country, every citizen of the country will be a citizen. This is what we mean. This is what we have to mean. We cannot conceive that in a State where we are not in a minority, where we have the main responsibilities as the majority of the country, there should be the slightest discrimination between a Jew and a non-Jew.

Abbas rejected Beinart's unsolicited advice for one simple reason – any state that contained the word "Jewish" or any suggestion of being Jewish would never be acceptable to Abbas.

As Pinhas Inbari reported:

On March 22, 2014, Abbas spoke before the Central Committee of the Fatah Movement. According to Nabil Abu Rodena, spokesman for the Palestinian Authority presidency, the Fatah body supported Abbas' position of 'non-recognition of Israel being a Jewish state.' The Palestinians did not release a complete text of Abbas' Fatah speech.

At the Arab League summit in Kuwait on March 25, Abbas took this a step further. The official Arabic transcript of his speech before reveals how he has moved toward a more uncompromising diplomatic posture, opposing Israel's stand that it be recognized as the nation-state of the Jewish people, just as it recognizes the Palestinian state as the nation-state of the Palestinian people:

Israel has invented new conditions that it did not raise before, like recognizing it as a Jewish state. This we oppose as well as even holding a discussion on this matter.

The Arab League was more than happy to oblige Abbas and rebuff Kerry - its final communiqué at the summit's close stating:

We express our absolute and decisive rejection to recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.

Kerry - left high and dry by this united show of Arab opposition to accepting what Kerry had trumpeted just 12 days earlier - was suddenly forced to fly to Amman on 26 March to meet with Jordan's King Abdullah in the afternoon and Abbas in the evening.

As Kerry's credibility crashes - Abbas's intransigence in refusing to recognize Israel as the Jewish State increases – a certain recipe for diplomatic disaster.