Abbas: no return to peace talks at this time

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"The Palestinians cannot return to peace talks at this time because of "fundamental disagreements" with Israel on what should be on the agenda, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview published Thursday.

Abbas rebuffed an appeal by President Barack Obama that both sides get back to the table promptly.

The Palestinian leader said he wants to avoid a crisis with the Obama administration at any cost, but stressed that "there is no common ground for discussion" with Israel's hardline leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu has said two key issues — a partition of Jerusalem and a repatriation of Palestinian refugees — are not up for discussion. The Israeli prime minister retreated from assurances given by his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, who held talks with Abbas last year.

The Palestinian leader has insisted that negotiations pick up where they left off with Olmert, adding that progress was made during those talks on drawing a border between Israel and a future Palestinian state.

Abbas, who is in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, said that even at the risk of alienating Obama, he cannot return to talks without a clear agenda."

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Netanyahu: No peace until Palestinians accept Israel as Jewish state

<snip>

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Haaretz on Wednesday that he would not agree to a Palestinian demand that Israel accept the 1967 borders as a condition for renewing peace negotiations.

Netanyahu also gave a condition of his own, saying Thursday that he would never drop his demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

"I told Abu Mazen (Abbas) I believe peace hinges first on his readiness to stand before his people and say, 'We ... are committed to recognizing Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people'," Netanyahu said.

"I will not drop this subject and other important issues under any final peace agreement," Netanyahu said."

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[Fozzledick]

1. Apparently Abbas disagrees that peace should be on the agenda

So what else is new?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

2. Precisely the other way round.

Abbas thinks that there's no point having an agenda *until* peace is on it, and Netanyahu has made clear it isn't.

[Vegasaurus]

4. Abbas has more to lose

and you know that.

Israel can continue the status quo much more comfortably than Abbas and the Palestinians.

Compromise will be their friend.

[azurnoir]

3. So now it is not enough that the Palestinians

"recognize" the state of Israel it now has to be recognized as the Jewish state of Israel, now does this caveat apply universally? Do all countries have to revise their recognition of Israel? Does it apply only to Arab countries or only to the Palestinians?
Finally if Israel wants to be recognized as the Jewish State of Israel why does it not rename itself that? As I have read here the many complaints of there being Islamic states it seems that they officially name themselves that ie: The Islamic Republic of Iran for example