Elliott Abrams

Pressure Points

Abrams gives his take on U.S. foreign policy, with special focus on the Middle East and democracy and human rights issues.

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Common Sense on the Palestinian “Refugee” Issue

by Elliott Abrams

In my last post I noted that PLO chairman Abbas had made, and then withdrawn, a sensible statement about Palestinian “refugees.”  To recap, at first Abbas said he saw Palestine as the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, and added that while he would like to visit the city of his birth, Safed, which is now in Israel, he had no right to live there. When criticized he retracted these comments, saying “The right of return is holy and no one can deny it,” later adding that he had only meant that he personally would not return to Safed. “What I said about Safed was my own personal position, and it did not mean giving up the right of return. No one can give up the right of return,” Abbas said. Read more »