Abbas to send ‘mother of all letters’ to Israel

JERUSALEM

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will deliver a “political letter” to Israel and a number of other countries next week, outlining the Palestinians’ conditions for resuming the peace process, Azzam al-Ahmed, a member of the Fatah central committee, said on March 8. 

Earlier this week, Palestinian officials in Ramallah described Abbas’s letter to Israel as the “mother of all letters,” Israeli daily Jerusalem Post reported. They said it would hold Israel responsible for the failure of the peace process because of its insistence on continuing to build settlements and refusal to recognize the pre-1967 lines as the basis for a two-state solution.

Abbas plans to send copies of his letter to the Quartet and other countries before delivering it to Israel, the officials added. Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat denied that Abbas’s letter would include any threats to Israel. He was responding to unconfirmed reports that the letter would contain a threat to dismantle the Palestinian Authority and walk away from the peace process.