It didn’t take long for Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat to “refine” his remarks made at the Brookings Institute. As I reported yesterday, Erekat had seemingly suggested that the “settlements” were no longer the obstacle to peace negotiations. By nightfall, however, the Palestinian requirements for returning to peace negotiations had reverted to a reiteration of Obama’s original demand of a ”complete cessation of all settlement construction” coupled with the new demand that “Netanyahu voice his agreement to the Obama statement of a peace based on 1967 lines with land swaps.”
Meanwhile, the Palestinians continue to indicate that they are not ready for statehood–or at least an independent statehood. Speaking on Tuesday, Salam Fayyad whined that the Palestinian Authority was facing a serious financial shortfall: “In 2011, we have been receiving $52.5 million dollars a month from the Arab countries, which is much less than the amount they committed to deliver. We need to see an acceleration in the receipt of aid that has been committed; we are not asking for anything more than what we need.”
The truth is that despite all of Fayyad’s remonstrations otherwise, the Palestinians remain completely dependent on outside donors for every facet of their existence. A new Palestinian state would be a beggar state.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.