Saudi Journalist Criticizes Palestinian Leaders for Multiple Missed Opportunities for Peace

In a June 13 TV interview, Saudi journalist Mishal Al-Sudairy recounted the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, from Mufti Hajj Amin Al-Husseini, who allied himself with Hitler in WWII, through his successor Ahmad Al-Shukeiri, who "lived his entire life in five-star hotels and fought through microphones," to Yasser Arafat, who, in contrast to Egypt and Jordan, rejected negotiations with Israel. "The mountain turned into the molehill of the Oslo Accords - a monster that came after it was too late, and the West Bank had become full of settlements, even though he had an opportunity - at the [1977] Mena House talks - to regain the West Bank without a single settlement," he said, concluding: "Those people missed [multiple] opportunities." Al-Sudairy, who was speaking on the Saudi MBC TV channel, talked about the acts of barbarity committed by Hamas against Fatah members in Gaza and asked: "How can the world have any respect for the [Palestinian] cause?" Al-Sudairy is a columnist for the Asharq Al-Awsat daily, where he expressed similar views in a May 2017 column: www.memri.org/...