PA President Mahmoud Abbas has stated the palestinians have no preconditions for talks with Israel.
Which is interesting, considering it was yesterday reported that he said:
“The PA will restart peace negotiations once Israel halts all settlement construction and recognizes the 1967 borders as the official borders of the future Palestinian state”
Sounds like preconditions to me.
Meanwhile, Abbas’ response to a question as to why all of a sudden the palestinians are demanding a “settlement” freeze is also..ehhh…interesting:
They tell me I had not previously demanded a construction freeze in the settlements. True, in 1993 we didn’t do so, but then there were no agreements about a freeze. Now, there is the road map,” Abbas said.
“The road map made demands of all parties. We were required to stop terror attacks, recognize Israel and even stop incitement. So come and see what we did. Although the joint committee against incitement is no longer active, we did act and are acting against incitement. They said there is a problem with incitement in speeches in mosques during Friday prayers. Today there is no more incitement at any mosque,” he said.
Notice how he mentions three palestinian obligations – stopping terror attacks, recognizing Israel and stopping incitement – and then talks only of the stopping of incitement. And even that is a blatant lie.
Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)
10:55PM: A palestinian town known for its watermelons? Sounds like the Hamas virtue police have their work cut out for them.
Or not.
Palestinians install a statue of a watermelon in front of a police station in the West Bank town of Jenin, Wednesday Dec. 16, 2009. The northern part of the West Bank area is known for its watermelons, which farmers have been growing for decades. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)
10:50PM: Two more Qassams to add to the tally.
5:40PM: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called opposition leader Tzipi Livni to voice his opposition to the arrest warrant issued in Britain against her earlier this week, saying that she was welcome in his country any time, and that he intended to take action to change the current legal situation that allowed this abuse to arise.
12:22PM: Quote of the day:
“I disagree with many policies of the Obama administration, but I know that President Barack Obama and [White House Chief of Staff] Rahm Emanuel believe that what they are doing is good for Israel.”
– Rabbi Asher Lopatin, Rahm Emanuel’s ex-rabbi
Now discuss amongst yourselves in the comments!
