Israel Matzav

'Palestinians' already 'dismayed'

The 'Palestinians' are already 'dismayed' at the way that the 'direct talks' are being handled by the Obama administration.

PA officials in Ramallah said that Washington’s invitation to conduct direct talks came as a surprise to Abbas and his aides.

Abbas was “enraged” when he heard that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was about to issue the invitation without informing him in advance, the officials said.

Abbas even considered issuing a public statement rejecting the US invitation, one official said.

In the end, Abbas and his aides were persuaded to accept the invitation after receiving four urgent phone calls from the State Department, another PA official said.

“The Americans have forced us to drop all our preconditions,” the official complained. “This makes us look bad in the eyes of our people.”

Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior Fatah official who also serves as an adviser to Abbas, expressed dismay over Washington’s failure to invite representatives of all the Quartet members to the launch of direct talks in Washington early next month.

The Palestinians would have liked to see the Russian president and the UN secretary-general at the talks, Ahmed said.

Because it was the Sabbath here when Abu Bluff finally accepted his invitation, many Israelis may not even be aware of the standoff that occurred with the 'Palestinians.' Prime Minister Netanyahu accepted his invitation before the Sabbath even started here - about 11:40 am Washington time. But when I opened Twitter on Saturday night, I saw Tweets as late as 6:30 pm Washington time (which is 1:30 am here) saying that Abu Mazen had not yet accepted, and giving the excuse that he was still breaking the Ramadamadan fast. Nice try guys.

But if I were advising Abu Mazen, I'd tell him to hang around until November 3. From that day on, things will unfortunately look much better for the 'Palestinians' with or without the other 'quartet' members present. I suspect that coming to the talks is the last concession that will be requested from Abu Mazen.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:19 AM