The PLO's Ambassador to the United States, Maen Areikat, created a bit of a minor ruckus yesterday in a talk to reporters. I say "minor ruckus" because and anybody everybody who has been paying attention has heard this from PLO representatives already and knows that this is their agenda. Anybody who makes a ruckus about it now is not really going to do anything about it regardless. So it is only a minor ruckus that will pass.

Areikat said:

any future Palestinian state it seeks with help from the United Nations and the United States should be free of Jews. After the experience of the last 44 years of military occupation and all the conflict and friction, I think it would be in the best interest of the two people to be separated.... the PLO seeks a secular state, but Palestinians need separation to work on their own national identity.

US reps made a big deal of this statement, calling it a despicable form of anti-semitism, and saying it is unacceptable..Elliot Abrams said no country has demanded to be free of Jews, judenrein, since Nazi Germany.

I would add that Elliot Abrams said the Palestinians should have no problem with a small minority of Jews, of up to 1% of the population. I am not quite sure how that dispels the anti-semitic aspect of it. If they allow in a quota of up to 1% Jews, that is still anti-semitic. Would the United States pass a law saying we can only allow 3% Hispanics, 1% Jews, 4% Italians, etc.? Such a quota is extremely racist.

Truth is, this is no more anti-semitic than we already know the Palestinians to be. And, it is far from the first time they have said they would not allow a Jewish presence in their future state.

However, I see the logic in Areikat's words. The two countries need a level of separation, and making the future Palestinian state judenrein might provide that degree of separation. He does not say if he means for that separation to be for a limit of 1 year, 5 years, 10 years or however long, after which he would say we have formed out identity and now we can open our borders to immigration, Jews included.

Areikat also does not say if by requiring a separation so they can form their national identity he also means that Israel will not be providing them with infrastructure, electricity, water, goods and whatever else they need. After all, they need a separation so they can learn how to work all that out.

As well, when he talks about separating, it seems, though he does not say it, he is also advocating that Israel should banish all the Arabs and send them to the future Palestinians State. After all, we need the separation, and they need to form their national identity.