Time is up for the PA

The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala), met with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell for 20 minutes at the airport in Amman. The Palestinians were disappointed with the meeting. So what is the point of Qureia setting up an appointment with the U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in Berlin?

My people and its leadership are now at a historic junction. The time has come for our leaders to engage in some serious soul-searching: Bush's declarations - about there being no right of return, about there being no return to the June 4, 1967 borders, about the legitimacy of settlement blocs - have left the Oslo leadership, which has brought the Palestinian people to the point of ruin over the past decade, with no choice. It is time to face the music. All the excuses have run out. There is no chance of renewing the so-called political process. There is no partner in Israel. The Sharon government is not interested in peace.

There are some questions the Palestinian Authority needs to answer: For over 10 years, you have tried to convince the Palestinian people, straining under the yoke of occupation, that there is someone to talk to and something to talk about. How are you going to convince the Palestinians today that you were right? Dear friends, your job is over. Have the courage to stand squarely before the people and tell them: We have failed. The ship has gone dangerously off course, and there is no hope.

President Arafat, whom no one denies is a national symbol, announced last Saturday at the ceremonies marking the 56th anniversary of the Nakba , that the Palestinians have not relinquished the right of return. Yet this is the same Arafat who openly supported the Geneva Initiative drawn up by Yossi Beilin and Yasser Abed Rabbo, which forgoes the right of return. This is the same Arafat who sent his ministers to the initiative's inauguration ceremony, thereby legitimizing the surrender of the Palestinian right of return.....

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/430225.html