On the eve of the Passover holiday, effusive holiday greetings from a senior Fatah official landed in the inboxes of Israeli peace activists. In the April 21 email, Fatah Central Committee member Mohammed al-Madani hoped, “On this festival of freedom, the Palestinian people will also get to realize their freedom and we will establish our state next to the State of Israel and peace will reign in our region.” Madani, who also heads the Committee for Interaction with Israeli Society, signed off, “And let us say Amen.” Unfortunately, the Israelis who are authorized to say “Amen” to his prayer of peace and to make it a reality are the ones who worship land. Ahead of the Jewish holidays, they usually show their respect for Madani and his friends by imposing a closure on the West Bank and its Palestinian residents.
On April 17, Uri Savir reported for Al-Monitor that Israel has made it clear to King Abdullah II of Jordan that it opposes a proposal calling for a Palestinian-Jordanian confederation whose western boundary would be based on the 1967 border between Jordan and Israel. Meanwhile, the Israeli government is busy planning the 50th anniversary celebrations of the “liberation of Jerusalem” — that is, its capture from Jordanian control in the 1967 war. If it were up to him, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would have issued a gag order for the interview in which Israeli President Reuven “Ruvi” Rivlin challenged this status quo.