Notes on a country straddling between reality and utopia

Saeb Erekat: “Maybe Netanyahu needs a therapist for numbers”

Palestinians, frustrated by the failure of the frozen US-sponsored peace process with Israel, are expected to campaign for statehood on September 20. The unilateral decision by the Palestinian Authority (PA) has sparked diplomatic tensions across the Middle East, the European Union and the United States. Since the PA’s announcement, the Obama administration and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have been attempting to dissuade Palestinians from going to the UN as it is generally expected that the US will veto the Palestinian bid for full member status at the United Nations Security Council.

On the European front, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé said Friday that a Palestinian attempt to win state recognition could trigger a “futile and dangerous diplomatic confrontation” as members of the EU are divided over the Palestinian question and it is not certain that France and Germany will be able to lobby for a united nay.

Recently our France 24 Correspondent, Gallagher Fenwick spoke with ‘Israel-Fatah’ key negotiator and the former chief PLO Steering and Monitoring Committee head, Saeb Erekat. The Oslo Accords chief veteran who has often been regarded as demure in his delivery was seemingly irked by our correspondent’s questions going as far as to say that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs “a therapist for numbers” and maybe this time he will accept 1967 borders.

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs reported that Clinton is currently in talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas "to urge President Abbas to receive them and hear them with open ears and to continue to work hard with us to avoid a negative scenario in New York at the end of the month”. The National Security Council’s Dennis Ross and Acting Special Envoy David Hale are in meetings with Netanyahu today to also mediate the Israeli side of an incoming diplomatic debacle.