Abbas's Speech at UN Shows Why Peace Not Possible

"There have been many attacks on aspects of Palestinian President Abbas's speech to the UN General Assembly last week, but it had one saving grace: candor.

Let's take just two examples. First, Mr. Abbas said this about the Temple Mount: Israel must 'cease its aggression and provocations against the Holy Al-Aqsa Mosque,' and Israel 'continues to commit aggressions and provocations against our Christian and Muslim holy sites, especially Al-Aqsa Mosque. The continuation of the Israeli aggressions against our Muslim and Christian holy sites is playing with fire.'

This accusation–as we see, repeated twice–is false, but Mr. Abbas goes beyond merely stating it and turns it into a threat of violence. What else does 'playing with fire' mean?

Second, and in a way worse, is Mr. Abbas's treatment of the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and his complete delegitimization of Israel...

He wants the Balfour Declaration of 1917 undone, wants the British to apologize for it, and complains of the UN's partition resolution in 1948...

A speech such as Mr. Abbas gave shows us why it has not been possible to make more progress toward peace between Israel and the Palestinians. As long as Palestinian leaders are inciting violence with fantasies about the Temple Mount and are mired in their inaccurate history of past victimization, from the Balfour Declaration to today, it is hard to see how progress is possible."