Gen.(res.) Shlomo Gazit: Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel: hope that
Israel will perish and disappear in future

What is the difficulty and what is the explanation for the Palestinian
refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state ?

...the principal and real reason is that the Palestinians have not lost hope
that Israel will perish and disappear in the future, and as Arafat said in a
conversation with me, "do not deny me the right to dream. Just as the Jews
pray "Next year in Jerusalem", the Palestinians have the right to dream of
Haifa, Jaffa and Beersheba." …

Finally, Abbas today represents only one component of all the Palestinian
people. He does not represent the residents of the Gaza Strip and does not
represent the refugees in the diaspora. Even in the West Bank he only
represents the Fatah movement. The voicing of such a public declaration,
and in Arabic, would be like declaring a death sentence on himself….

Gen.(res.) Shlomo Gazit - IMRA translation of an excerpt from his weekly
column - Live in the Absence of Peace 8 March 2014
http://on-the-left-side.org.il/%D7%9C%D7%97%D7%99%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%91%D7%94%D7%99%D7%A2%D7%93%D7%A8-%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%9D