States of Confusion

A friend notes with wry amusement the following passage from a recent news story:

"The Palestinian Authority and Hamas rejected over the weekend Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people as a precondition for resuming the stalled peace talks between the two sides . . . .

"Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior Fatah official closely associated with [Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud] Abbas, said on Saturday that the Palestinians would not return to the negotiating table until Netanyahu publicly accepted the two-state solution. 'We reject Netanyahu's demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish state,' he said. 'This demand illustrates the racist nature of Israel and the extremist policies of its government. It also shows that Israel is not serious about making peace with its neighbors.'"

To sum up, then: Israel's enemies insist that it agree to a two-state solution -- but they refuse to recognize the existence of one of the two states in question.