Qatar has once again reaffirmed before the Paris conference and the international community that Israel is the one hindering the peace process, said Qatar’s Al Raya newspaper. “Qatar’s Foreign Minister Shaikh Mohammad Bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani reiterated that it is Israel’s repeated crimes against the Palestinian people and its racist ideology that are hampering peace and worsening the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Israel, as always, dishonours its commitments towards a peace agreement. In return, Israel wants the Palestinians to hand it a blank cheque, to give up occupied Jerusalem and Al Aqsa Mosque and recognise the judaisation of Israel in return for the establishment of a Palestinian state. This is neither acceptable nor justifiable because Israel has no rights over the mosque or occupied Jerusalem,” the paper said.
The communique of the Paris conference stressed that the only political solution for the Palestinian issue is a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders, said Palestine’s Al Quds. “Such a conference is rare and it was attended by nations from around the world, represented by the United Nations, European Union and other countries from Asia, Africa and South America. What was irrational, however, is that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated before the entire world that the conference was ‘rigged’ and ‘a thing of the past’. United States Secretary of State John Kerry had apparently contacted Netanyahu following the conference, comforting him that there would not be any repercussions. But practical steps must be taken and a good start would be for nations that attended the conference to fully recognise the Palestinian state and establish economic, trade and political relations with it, and boycott colonies and their products and take steps against Israeli policies that contradict the conference’s communique.”
The one-day conference was not an earth-shattering gathering, but at least it reaffirmed — for the umpteenth time — the basis for any peace agreement: UN resolutions and the 1967 borders, said the Jordan Times. “It is regrettable that the two parties to the conflict did not participate ... And while the nations gathered for the meeting in Paris gingerly tip-toed around the main issues and failed to criticise US President-elect Donald Trump’s declared plan to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem, some said the wording of the communique will send a subliminal message. Trump does not take explicit advice, how can one expect him to follow a subliminal message?”
Not only does Netanyahu contend that the conference is rigged by the Palestinians conspiring with the French, but it is also meant, he says, to adopt additional anti-Israel stances, said the Saudi Gazette. “The conference is neither rigged, nor is it colluding against Israel. It is designed to underline global support for a two-state peace deal,” the paper said.
It is true that the Paris conference’s communique is not an international charter that should be abided by, but it is still a document that indicates a new international behaviour towards the Palestinian cause and ‘roadmap for peace’, said the UAE’s Al Khaleej. “The communique can still be used as a reference point when an acceptable settlement is being sought. Its content contradicts the Israeli stance that rejects a settlement and is stubbornly holding on to the policy of occupation ...”
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