Dec 10 2007
unpublished letter to Daily News
Zuckerman’s factless facts
Mortimer Zuckerman lists in “Perilous path to peace†Daily News Monday the 3rd of December as “hard facts†items that are not so. Fatah has not “virtually ceased to exist in the West Bank.†Fatah did not lose to Hamas the Ramallah mayoral elections. The mayor Janet Mikil although not a Fatah member is a left wing Christian nationalists. Fatah whose leader has met with the Israeli leader more than any previous leader does ‘recognize Israel’ but can’t do better than Israelis who have not decided what is the nature of their state. The best that most Israelis can agree to is that Israel is a Jewish and democratic state. Palestinian secular leaders prefer to talk about a state for its citizens (which is what a democratic state is) and don’t want to give Islamists a political gift by inserting this sensitive religious issue in this conflict. The nakbeh or catastrophe that Abbas talked about is not referring to the creation of Israel but the dispersion of Palestinians. The unsourced claims by Zuckerman to oppose peace efforts by Bush Olmert and Abba are not facts and are certainly not hard facts.
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