Israel crisis: Taking cue from US anger, Mahmoud Abbas digs in heels

CS Monitor ^ | 3-17-10 | Joshua Mitnick

[SJackson]

Emboldened by the Israel crisis with the US over East Jerusalem building plans, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is again insisting on 'a complete cessation of settlement activities' before renewed negotiations.

Tel Aviv
With Israel-US ties in crisis and tensions subsiding after the worst riots in Jerusalem in years, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas dug in his heels on peace talks on Wednesday.

Sharing US anger over the announcement of a 1,600 home building project in East Jerusalem during Vice President Joe Biden's visit last week, Abbas retreated to a prerequisite that he dropped just a week ago in order to give a chance to a US initiative for indirect negotiations.

"Israel must implement … a complete cessation of settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jersualem to go to negotiations,'' he told reporters in a joint-appearance with the president of Brazil, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

In the zero-sum maneuvering to return to the peace table, the blunt language and angry messages from US officials over Israeli building in the sections of Jerusalem claimed by Palestinians as the capital of a future state has proven a momentary boon to Mr. Abbas.

[cranked]

Abbas, one word: “No”

[johniegrad]

Obama has emboldened Israel’s enemies which, in fact, are our enemies.

[Mack Truck]

Did anyone doubt that Abbas and Obama are playing from the same playbill?

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

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[HiTech RedNeck]

Obama promised that if the “political winds grew ugly” he would “side with the Muslims.”

What he didn’t tell us was that he was going to bring an political ugliness fan to Washington.

[Brad from Tennessee]

The average American does not want to think the unthinkable—that their president is a saboteur. He is doing his best to destabilize Honduras, Eastern Europe, Israel and the U.S.

[HiTech RedNeck]

“All the better to Marxize you, my dears.”

[Mack Truck]

All the evidence points to his having been put in place by oil rich regimes and their friends for the purpose of destroying capitalism, democracy and personal freedom is overwhelming. Raw power is what this colation is after, pure and simple. The foolish Leftists don’t realize that they’ll be eaten for lunch once they do the dirty work for which they’ve been recruited.

[Joan Kerrey]

Abbas dug in his heels on peace talks

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Obama made the opening for Abbas. This on the job learning by our president just isn’t working. The crisis is of Obama’s making. God, I wish Israel was in a position to break relations with the U.S. and refuse to accept the U.S. as a mediator. Obama really needs to be brought down to size. He has no business trying to be the leader of the free world considering blunders like this.
He has, in effect, given the green light for more palestinian violence and has made no demands on the Arabs. By the way Palestinian leaders are still teaching their children in classrooms & mosques to hate jews and their is no comment from Obama or Hillary. They are creating generation after generation of the youngsters to hate and kill. They still refuse to accept Israel’s right to exist. They are still commited to the destruction of Israel and we only hear demands made of Israel to prove it’s commitment to peace. These demands are never ending and with every concession made by Israel violence has been the response from the Arabs.