Abbas: No peace with Israel without defining borders

[Jefferson23]

RAMALLAH (AFP) -- There can be no peace with Israel without first defining the borders of a future Palestinian state, president Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday.

"Since the creation of Israel, nobody knows what the borders are. We are determined to know our borders and theirs, without that there will be no peace," he said as Washington's nine-month deadline for reaching a peace deal expired, leaving the process in tatters.

In a televised address, Abbas laid out his conditions for returning to the crisis-hit peace talks with Israel which have made no progress since they were launched on July 29 last year.

"If we want to extend the negotiations there has to be a release of prisoners ... a settlement freeze, and a discussion of maps and borders for three months during which there must be a complete halt to settlement activity," he said.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=693876

[Jefferson23]

1. The honest brokers, running interference:

Lawmakers: PA risks US aid freeze if Hamas joins government

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Palestinian leaders risk forfeiting millions of dollars in US aid if they press ahead with plans to form a unity government including Hamas members, US lawmakers and officials warned Tuesday.

"Let me be utterly clear about our policy towards Hamas," Assistant Secretary for the Near East Anne Patterson told a House hearing.

"No US governmental money will go into any government that includes Hamas until Hamas accepts the Quartet conditions. And that's renouncing violence, recognizing previous agreements and most explicitly recognizing Israel's right to exist."

In a surprise deal Palestinian leaders from the West Bank and the Hamas-run Gaza Strip last week agreed to work together after years of bitter rivalry.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=693947

[eridani]

2. Palestinian President Abbas Speaks Out on Holocaust

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/23369-palestinian-president-abbas-speaks-out-on-holocaust

alestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday called the Holocaust "the ugliest crime humanity has known in modern history," a rare acknowledgment by an Arab leader of Jewish suffering during the Nazi genocide.

Abbas also said he felt compassion for the victims and their families. Some 6 million Jews perished in the Nazi genocide during World War II.

His comments were published by the Palestinian official news agency WAFA just hours before the start of Israel's annual Holocaust memorial.

Abbas' statement also came as the latest U.S. attempt to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal was on the verge of collapse.

Last week, Israel suspended negotiations in response to a reconciliation deal between Abbas and his political rival, the Islamic militant Hamas. At the time, Israeli leaders alleged Abbas preferred peace with the militants, who have called for Israel's destruction, to peace with Israel.

Abbas, meanwhile, has said he is ready to extend negotiations beyond Tuesday's deadline, provided Israel halts settlement construction and keeps a promise to release a group of veteran Palestinian prisoners. He said Saturday that any interim unity government with Hamas would be based on his political platform, not that of Hamas.