The so-called “Palestinian Papers,” which reveal that Israel turned down massive concessions from a desperate PLO, are a disgrace, according to the Guardian, one of the papers distributing the leaks. “It is hard to tell who appears worst,” the paper’s editorial reads: “The Palestinian leaders, who are weak, craven, and eager to shower their counterparts with compliments; the Israelis, who are polite in word by contemptuous in deed; or the Americans, whose neutrality consists of bullying the weak.”
Palestinians offer virtually everything they have, just to create a “puppet state of Palestine.” The PLO’s chief negotiator at one point actually asks for a fig leaf: “What good am I if I’m the joke of my wife, I’m so weak?” he asks. After reading these documents, “one requires Panglossian optimism to believe that these negotiations can one day be resurrected,” the Guardian concludes. As of today, the PLO’s “legitimacy as negotiators will have all but ended on the Palestinian street.” (More Palestinian Authority stories.)