Why can't the Palestinians accept Israel as a Jewish State???

Here's the Palestinian response to Olmert's demand that they recognize Israel as a Jewish state...

The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee in Nazareth unanimously called on the Palestinian Authority not to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

• Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary-general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization's executive committee: "This issue is not on the table; it is raised for internal [Israeli] consumption."

• Saeb Erekat, head of the PLO Negotiations Department: "The Palestinians will never acknowledge Israel's Jewish identity. … There is no country in the world where religious and national identities are intertwined." Erekat's generalization is both curious and revealing. Not only do 56 states and the PLO belong to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, but most of them, including the PLO, make the sharia (Islamic law) their main or only source of legislation. Saudi Arabia even requires that every subject be a Muslim.

Salam Fayad, Palestinian Authority prime minister: "Israel can define itself as it likes, but the Palestinians will not recognize it as a Jewish state."

Ahmed Qurei, chief Palestinian negotiator: "This [demand] is absolutely refused."