Question to EU officials: Are the Palestinians willing to accept lasting peace with Israel as a Jewish state?

The Jerusalem Post reports that "EU officials raised concerns Monday over the commitment of Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu to pursue genuine peace talks with the Palestinians."

Do they not have even greater concern about the commitment of the Palestinians to pursue genuine peace talks with the Israelis? Hamas has made it clear in its founding documents that the destruction of Israel is their goal. Use of Gaza as a launching site for rockets against Israel shows the likely result of any similar withdrawal from the West Bank.

Nothing in the history of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians suggests a willingness on the part of the Palestinians to accept the existence of Israel or a willingness to live in peace with a Jewish Israel. All of the negotiations indicate only a desire by Palestinians for temporary cessation of hostilities until they can rearm for more terrorist attacks against Israel.

The EU seems to overlook that reality to attack only Netanyahu for supposedly acting in bad faith. I have no doubt that Netanyahu, like other Israelis, would gladly reach an agreement with the Palestinians if there were any likelihood that such agreement would really create lasting peace.

The real impediment to peace and peace negotiations remains the unwillingness of Palestinians and their financiers to accept the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. The EU needs to find a way to change that rather than attacking Netanyahu.