UPDATED: PALESTINIANS REJECT U.S. OFFER OF STATE

FOR THE 10TH TIME SINCE THE 1920'S, THE PALESTINIANS HAVE REJECTED A STATE. WHEN WILL THE WORLD REALIZE, THE PALESTINIANS WOULD RATHER ELIMINATE ISRAEL THAN HAVE A STATE OF THEIR OWN?

Abbas: No ‘temporary’ Palestinian state. (AP)

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday that he opposes the establishment of a provisional Palestinian state within temporary borders. Palestinian officials in recent weeks have grown increasingly wary of the idea, which was also proposed by Israel’s foreign minister, fearing they will be stuck indefinitely with a truncated state. “We reaffirmed to Secretary Rice our rejection of any temporary or transitional solutions, including a state with temporary borders, because we don’t see in it as a realistic option,” he told a joint news conference with Rice.

A Provisional Palestinian State? - Martin Peretz

Mahmoud Abbas opposes a provisional Palestinian state and wants a final settlement based on the 1949 cease-fire lines, with 4 million Arab refugees having the right to "return" to 1949 Israel, and with Jerusalem as its capital. He is living in a world of fantasy. He can't even get his own people to agree about who is the Palestinian government and who is not, whether he's actually in power or whether power belongs to Hamas and Prime Minister Haniyah. A Palestinian government does not exist, and it is already making demands for a permanent resolution of Arab-Israeli conflict. Abbas' signature won't be worth a fig. A provisional government is actually the best that the Palestinians will get right now, but, since they are recalcitrant, they won't even get that. (New Republic)