Abbas emphasizes that the PA does not recognize Israel as a Jewish State
Headline: "In interview to Lebanese Al-Nahar – President [Abbas]: The exchange of letters with Netanyahu has reached a dead-end, and is waiting for American action"
"The issue of the Jewish state is not our concern; rather, it is your concern, and we do not accept this – that we should recognize something that is called the Jewish state, because we have already recognized the State of Israel, since Oslo [Accords], since the days of President Yasser Arafat and the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin; in return, there was [Israeli] recognition of the PLO. Throughout that period the subject of a Jewish Israel was not raised. Why was the subject not raised with Egypt or Jordan during the negotiations for signing the peace agreements? Or even with Syria, during the indirect negotiations, via Turkey? Why do you ask this of us? We will not accept it – neither explicitly nor implicitly."
"The issue of the Jewish state is not our concern; rather, it is your concern, and we do not accept this – that we should recognize something that is called the Jewish state, because we have already recognized the State of Israel, since Oslo [Accords], since the days of President Yasser Arafat and the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin; in return, there was [Israeli] recognition of the PLO. Throughout that period the subject of a Jewish Israel was not raised. Why was the subject not raised with Egypt or Jordan during the negotiations for signing the peace agreements? Or even with Syria, during the indirect negotiations, via Turkey? Why do you ask this of us? We will not accept it – neither explicitly nor implicitly."