Israel may cancel the fourth and final stage of its release of 104 Palestinian terrorist prisoners if Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, pictured, refuses to commit to a yearlong extension of the current peace talks. Photo: World Economic Forum.

JNS.org – The Palestinian envoy to Great Britain has partnered with an Israeli professor to argue that the Palestinian Authority (PA) must recognize Israel as a Jewish state in exchange for Israel recognizing a Palestinian state.

Envoy Manuel Hassassian and Prof. Raphael Cohen-Almagor wrote an article for the quarterly publication Fathom in which they propose, “Israel shall recognize the State of Palestine. Palestine shall recognize the Jewish State of Israel.”

The authors also argue that Israel should be entitled to annex parts of the West Bank as part of a mutually agreed land swap deal.

“The major settlement blocs—Maaleh Adumim, Givat Zeev, Gush Etzion, Modiin Illit and Ariel—which account for approximately 70 percent of the Jewish population in the West Bank and for less than four percent of its territory, may be annexed to Israel upon reaching an agreement with the PA as part of the land swap equal in size and quality. Border adjustment must be kept to the necessary minimum and must be reciprocal,” they wrote.

The argument is a departure from the recent statements of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who has said “there is no way” that the Palestinians would accept a Jewish state.