Arab Summit Rejects Israel as ‘Jewish State’

Arab leaders, on Wednesday, called for a political solution to the conflict in Syria and backed the Palestinians in refusing to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.  Israel threatened to destabilize the US-Palestinian peace talks, said the Arab leaders in a statement issued at the conclusion of the two day Arab League summit in Bayan Palace, Kuwait.

“We express our absolute and decisive rejection of Israel as a Jewish state”, said the Arab League. It was a rejection of a key demand of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a boost to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Netanyahu says that no peace could be made with the Palestinians without recognition of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. The Palestinians oppose this stating that it harms the rights of Palestinian refugees displaced from what is now Israel, as well as those of Israel’s large Arab minority.  Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the summit on Tuesday that during the previous eight months of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Israel has only been working to obstruct the way of peace.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Jordan on Wednesday for the peace talks. He would be meeting Abbas and later with King Abdullah II. A State Department spokeswoman said Kerry also would talk with Netanyahu in the next few days.

Infoeditor