As the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America and others have noted, Palestinian leadership has on numerous occasions rejected U.S. and Israeli offers for statehood in exchange for peace with and recognition of the Jewish state. In 2000 at Camp David, 2001 at Taba and 2008 after the Annapolis Conference, the Palestinian Authority turned down opportunities for peace and statehood, refusing to so much as make a counteroffer.
Similarly, the Palestinians refused both U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry’s 2014 and Vice President Joe Biden’s March 2016 proposals to restart negotiations. Instead, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has incited anti-Jewish violence, paid salaries to imprisoned Palestinian terrorists and their families, and—as recently as his Sept. 22 speech before the United Nations—denied Israel’s right to exist.