Palestinian Authority stumped by Moroccan peace with Israel

Palestinian Authority yet to respond after Morocco becomes latest Arab country to bypass Palestinians and make peace with the Jewish State.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

Palestinian officials and media were almost silent Friday following the announcement by President Donald Trump that Morocco became the latest Arab country to announce that it will establish diplomatic relations with Israel.

In its daily review of headlines in the leading Palestinian newspapers, the Palestinian Authority official news agency WAFA did not list a single story dealing with the Morocco-Israel peace ties, nor did it list the development among any of its news bulletins.

The Israeli news website PANET found only one Palestinian official, Bassam al-Salihi, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, who condemned the news.

“Any Arab departure from the Arab peace initiative, as it was stipulated that normalization comes after the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Arab lands, is unacceptable and increases Israel’s arrogance and its denial of the rights of the Palestinian people,” al-Salihi said.

Palestinian terrorist organizations in Gaza were quick to fill the void and issued their own condemnations of the peace deal.

“Announcing the normalization of relations between the occupation and Morocco is a political sin,” said Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem. “The occupation exploits all cases of normalization to increase the ferocity of its aggressive policy against our Palestinian people and expand its settlement intrusion on our land.”

The Islamic Jihad terror group issued a statement calling the move a “betrayal the fundamentals of Islam and Arabism and neglecting Jerusalem and Palestine,” the Palestinian news website PL24 Online reported.

The Popular Front terror group said, “The Moroccan regime’s declaration of normalization of relations with the enemy is a black day.”

PANET noted that Israeli cabinet minister Rafi Peretz, whose family moved to Israel from Morocco, called the normalization agreement a “historic and pleasant” event.

“My parents, who immigrated from Morocco and left their entire lives behind, always spoke of peace and good relations with the Arab neighbors in Morocco,” Peretz said. “It is time for us to do that too.”

After President Trump tweeted the news on Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Trump and Morocco’s King Mohammed VI “for taking this historic decision to bring a historic peace between us.”

“This will be a very warm peace. Peace has never – the light of peace on this Hanukkah day has never – shone brighter than today in the Middle East,” Netanyahu said.