A Palestinian View: Sufian Abu Zaida Addresses Netanyahu

In today's Yediot Acharonoth, Fatah leader and former PA Minister Sufian Abu Zaida addresses Netanyahu personally:

I did not participate in electing you or your government.
Nonetheless, in the complex and tangled reality of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, you, as Israel's prime minister, affect my
everyday life, my future and my fate. To the same degree, the social,
political and security developments in Palestinian society affect Israel
and could have an effect on your post.

Whether you like it or not, we are dependent on each other. Even the
security fence cannot separate us. Therefore, if you are thinking of
ignoring the Palestinian political-national issue, you will find
yourself in a minefield.

You speak of "economic peace," but you know that this is an empty
slogan. Development and economic improvement are important to the
Palestinian people, but much more important to it are removing the
occupation and political independence. For this goal, we are willing to
pay a very high price, and even to give up the economic development that
you are offering us.

"Economic peace" is a surreal idea, but you will not even be able to
implement that without removing the 500 roadblocks and barriers
throughout the West Bank, without permitting free movement of people and
goods. You will not be able to carry this out without lifting the siege
from Jerusalem, without removing settlement outposts that are
interfering with our economic development and have turned the territory
into a handful of cantons, and without stopping the expansion of the
settlements and opening the Israeli job market.
We, who truly want peace on a two-state basis, call upon you to
accept the Arab initiative, which is supported by all the Arab states.
There is no better proposal today, which gives Israel, in exchange for a
withdrawal from the occupied territories, full peace and normalization
with the entire Arab world.

It is time for you, as incumbent prime minister, to lead
a new initiative. Not talk, but action. And please, Mr. Netanyahu,
don't use the slogan that there is no Palestinian partner. If you will
it, he exists.