He paid tribute to the full sweep of Jewish history and acknowledged not only that Jews have the right to exercise their national self-determination on their historic homeland, but that Israel is a living, breathing reality that is not going away.
"A lockout limits the rights of law-abiding patrons to exercise their right to self-determination by engaging in legal behaviour," he said.
The Iraqis have not chosen to exercise their right of self-determination; the choice was made for them by the United States when it invaded and occupied Iraq.
The Palestinians, on the other hand, want to exercise their right of self-determination and have been struggling for it alone for decades.
It therefore took up arms demanding such autonomy as would allow the people of southern Sudan to exercise their right to self-determination, without this extending to independence.
The agreement presented a superbly Jesuitical solution: it was "for the people of the island of Ireland alone, by agreement between the two parts respectively and without external impediment, to exercise their right of self-determination".
This agreement maintains that it is "for the people of the island of Ireland alone, by agreement between the two parts respectively and without external impediment, to exercise their right of self-determination".
Well, Fayyad muses, perhaps the Israeli prime minister needs to say something like this to Israelis: "Yes, it is true we have a contract with God Almighty who gave us the land, but there happen to be 4.4 million other people on this land who want to exercise their right to self-determination, so perhaps we can adjust the divine contract a little".
"Decolonization is about giving the people the freedom to exercise their right of self-determination.
In that case, we shouldn't let these Marxist enclaves exercise their right to self-determination lest they turn their military recruitment stations into co-ops for gay hypoallergenic dogs or whatever.
The way to resolve the entire conflict in the long term is to end Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and allow the Palestinians to exercise their right to self-determination.
