The Palestinian Authority (PA) stubbornly clings to its resolution not to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, despite the move's contribution to the failure of peace talks - and the PA's faltering image.

On Thursday, PA official Mahmoud Khalifa called Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman's demands that the PA recognize Israel as a Jewish state a "fantasy," and claimed Israel is "running away from the implementation of the peace process, and conditions which would cover up [its] crimes of [building] settlements and land theft."

Khalifa also said that Israel's operations against terrorism in PA-run areas constitute "aggressive and unilateral actions which show clearly that Israel is skirting the peace process."

He then accused both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Liberman of power-mongering - and murder.

"The logic of power has taken hold in the occupation, which is still dominant in the leadership of the Israeli right," Khalifa fired. "Liberman's and Netanyahu's statements [. . .] prove once again that the occupation is the problem, and causes thousands of barbaric massacres, resulting in hundreds thousands of martyrs, wounded and prisoners, all because they refuse to accede to the policy of the occupiers."

Khalifa concluded by saying that Israel has been covering up "murder" for "over a century" under the auspices of the Israeli government, and that anti-terror operations are "blaming the victim."

The PA has already formally refused to recognize Israel as a Jewish state throughout talks, and got the Arab League to similarly reject Israel as the Jewish state. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's stubbornness on the issue has been among the key sticking points in peace talks, which failed after the PA ran to the UN to apply for membership in international organizations.