Word: israelity
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...prime audience for Abbas' statement, of course, was not the PLO leadership but the Obama Administration. According to Palestinian sources who attended the meeting, Abbas told his PLO comrades that the U.S. had "cheated" him by retreating from its insistence that Israel end settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. "We welcomed it, and were optimistic when President Obama announced the need for a complete halt to settlements, including natural growth," Abbas said. "We were surprised by his support for the Israeli position." (The U.S. has backed Israel's argument that negotiations should resume despite the disagreement over...
Abbas had been under pressure from the U.S. to open unconditional talks with the Israelis, but mindful of his deteriorating popularity at home, the leadership of his Fatah party had ruled out negotiations until Israel demonstrated its bona fides by halting settlement activity. Livid over what he sees as Obama backsliding, Abbas is drawing on the only leverage available to him by threatening to walk away...
...threatening to leave the stage. "This is political theater," says Amman-based Palestinian analyst Mouin Rabani. "The Palestinian Central Election Committee is expected to conclude that the election Abbas called for in January can't be held, because Hamas won't allow them to go ahead in Gaza, and Israel won't allow them to go ahead in East Jerusalem ... So what he did today was announce that he won't be a candidate in an election he knows is not going to happen. It would be meaningful only if he announced his actual resignation from the positions he holds...
...Israelis and Administration officials suggest that the settlement-freeze issue shouldn't be allowed to get in the way of negotiations. However, in the eyes of the Palestinians, the Obama Administration's retreat on the issue signals that the U.S. is not going to pressure Israel for concessions it has been adamantly unwilling to make. Without such U.S. pressure on Israel, the Palestinian leadership believes there's nothing to be gained from talking to the hawkish Netanyahu government. From the perspective of Fatah, the almost two decades spent relying on U.S.-led diplomacy to deliver Palestinian national goals has delivered...
...significant warning. The U.S. has operated as if the elements of a peace deal on the Palestinian side - with a pliant leadership that is politically dependent on the U.S. and an administrative and security apparatus that is ready to suppress the more radical elements seeking to confront Israel - would remain in place, passively waiting for a better day on the Israeli side. Now, however, Washington has moderated its demands on the Israelis, mindful that there's a line beyond which the Israeli government says it will not go. Abbas' statement on Thursday, stunt or not, is the most public warning...