Yossi Beilin’s Six Errors

Yossi Beilin, former Labour Party MK and Deputy Foreign Minister, among other political positions and a fervent attachment to the Oslo Process he helped proceed, claims in Haaretz that Shlomo Avneri, Hebrew University professor emeritus and also a Labour Party stalwart, made six mistakes — the three he lists are errors and since he multiplies that by offering even further errors, I’ll make that six errors:

Shlomo Avineri’s three mistakes on Palestinians and the peace process

I think that those are not mistakes and that Beilin errs.

Error #1:

Avineri writes that no Palestinian leader has expressed remorse that the Palestinians rejected the UN Partition Plan in 1947 for a Jewish state and an Arab state…Avineri repeats the mistaken attempt to present the Palestinians as a single bloc.

No. Actually, only official stances count in diplomacy and treaty making and Beilin cannot provide a refutation so he then uses a shallow argument:

Avineri certainly is aware that very many Jews, in Israel and outside it, believe with all their heart the hollow words of Golda Meir, in which no Palestinian people exists and so they have no right to a state…

The main opposition to a Palestinian state is its direct threat to Israel’s existence.  Most people even on the Right would be happy with a Palestinian state in Jordan for two reasons.  The first, Palestine includes Jordan and second, under the Hashemites, Israel may have a better security situation.

Error #2:

Ignoring the words of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who a few years ago said in a media interview that the Palestinian leadership made a mistake in 1947 [in rejecting the Partition Plan]…

Ignoring the Partition Plan does not mean Abbas accepts the 1949 borders or the reality of the need for refugees to be compensated and resettled outside of Israel.

Error #3:

…the Palestinian willingness to describe Israel as a Jewish state, or to relate to the Jewish nationality and the Jewish people. In the Palestinian “Declaration of Independence” from November 18, 1988, it states explicitly that the decision on the Partition Plan by the United Nations General Assembly in November 1947 provides a legitimate basis for the Palestinian demand for sovereignty and independence…These words…make it clear to the UN General Assembly that there has been a change in the PLO’s approach to Israel.

This is balderdash.  Here is a PLO central peace negotiator:

Netanyahu Wants Jewish State Just Like ISIS Wants Islamic State

and

Erekat: we won’t recognise Israel as Jewish state

and here is Abbas himself:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated on Wednesday his refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state…“We won’t accept a Jewish state and the Islamization of the struggle in the Middle East,” Abbas said in a speech before the PLO Central Council in Ramallah. “We are moderate Muslims. We are also against the Jewish state because of the many things it would mean in the future. We are against a temporary [Palestinian] state.”

Mr. Beilin, Seneca once wrote emo fit fato nocens, that no one becomes guilty by fate. You are guilty because of a purposeful misrepresentation of the facts. That is a multiple error.

And unforgivable.