Al-Aqsa as "exclusive property"

In his UN General Assembly meeting address, Mahmoud Abbas said:

Al-Aqsa Mosque and its surroundings, ladies and gentlemen, are the exclusive property of Muslims, and this was approved by the League of Nations in 1930, and we will not accept anything else, no matter the circumstances.

To what is he referring?

An International Commission was appointed by Great Britain following the 1929 riots. It was done with the approval of the Council of the League of Nations and its purpose was "to determine the rights and claims of Moslems and Jews in connection with the Western or Wailing Wall at Jerusalem".

Among its conclusions is this:

(3)  The Ownership of the Wall and of its Surroundings.

The Commission has to pronounce a verdict on the Jewish claims, and the Jews do not claim any proprietorship to the Wall or to the Pavement in front of it (concluding speech of Jewish Counsel, Minutes, page 908)...Subsequent to the investigation it has made, the Commission herewith declares that the ownership of the Wall, as well as the possession of it and of those parts of its surroundings that are here in question, accrues to the Moslems.  The Wall itself as being an integral part of the Haram-esh-Sherif area is Moslem property.  From the inquiries conducted by the Commission, partly in the Sharia Court and partly through the hearing of witnesses' evidence, it has emerged that the Pavement in front of the Wall, where the Jews perform their devotions, is also Moslem property.

I am not sure that this conclusion was "approved".

In any case, Mount Moriah was conquered and occupied by Moslem Arabs in 638 CE

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Abbas Goes Crazy for Canaan

As published:

Abbas Says Palestine For Canaanites...Outsiders Will LeaveSunday, 11 August, 2019 

Ramallah - Kifah Ziboun
Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday that outsiders will be deported from the Palestinian land to the "dustbin of history" because this land is for the Canaanites.

“We are the Canaanites,” he stressed.

Addressing the crown in Jalazone refugee camp in Ramallah, Abbas said the Palestinians will remain “steadfast, patient and resilient.”

“We will remain in our homeland, and the outsiders on this land has no right in this country. The land is for its inhabitants, this land is for the Canaanites who were here 5,000 years ago, and we are the Canaanites.”

Abbas’s rhetoric was sharp compared to his usual diplomatic speeches...Abbass added that Jerusalem will remain Palestine’s capital, stressing that all Palestinians and Islamic and Christian Arab nation will visit this capital one day.

Screenshot:

[and now at PMW]

So, what do we do with Saeb Erekat's Natufian theory from 2014?

As Arabs arrived here from Arabia (h/t IMRA), does he kick out his own people?

I treated that Canaanite twist here ten years ago.

Is he going crazy?

P.S.  This is ridiculous.

UPDATE

The national soccer team of Palestine is nicknamed...Lions of Canaan. And it has Israeli Arabs on the squad.

P.S.S.  He's done this before.

Background.

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Mahmoud Abbas and the Caricature

Mahmoud Abbas is hospitalized.

But he reads the daily press.

Here he is reading Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda of yesterday:

Let's take a closer look at the caricature on the back page of yesterday's newspaper:

A real close look:

We all know what type of ideological hatred produces such images.

When he dies, I surely hope no Jew will say kaddish for him.

_______________

Seems Abbas might have done that pose deliberately.

^

Iran Lied? Abbas Lies!

I just saw that Abbas apologized for his antisemitism.

Here:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has walked back on comments he made that accused Israeli rabbis of calling for the poisoning of Palestinian water wells. He apologized for offending Jewish people around the world with a classic anti-Semitic trope During a speech he made Thursday at the European Parliament in Brussels, Abbas said: “Only a week ago, a number of rabbis in Israel announced, and made a clear announcement, demanding that their government poison the water to kill the Palestinians. Isn't that clear incitement to commit mass killings against the Palestinian people?”

Oh, sorry, that was from 2016.

Here, from today:

Abbas Apologizes to 'Jewish People' for Offensive Comments, 

Condemning Holocaust and anti-Semitism

And he adds the "if" trick, meaning who would be offended?

"If people were offended by my statement, especially people of the Jewish faith, I apologize to them. I would like to assure everyone that it was not my intention to do so, and to reiterate my full respect for the Jewish faith, as well as other monotheistic faiths.

Iran Lied?

Abbas Lies!

Credit

________

UPDATE

And Abbas is re-elected as PLO head.

Well, that's a resounding "we-don't-give-a-_ _ _ _-".


UPDATE

[Abbas'] remarks are not just a reflection of his personal opinion but rather the Palestinian belief system. They constitute the basis of the false Palestinian narrative that holds there is no such thing as the Jewish people. The Jews are merely a religious group and as a result, they have no right to a nation state. In a statement following the outcry over his remarks, Abbas apologized not to the Jewish people but "members of the Jewish religion." The Jews have no historical connection to Palestine and there is therefore no basis for their demand for a return to Palestine. As the descendants of the Canaanites, the Palestinians are the only indigenous people here. The Jews are intolerable beings, which is why the Europeans created Zionism in a bid to both rid themselves of the Jews and defend against the strengthening of the Arab nations and Islam.

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Abbas - Jew Hater

The anti-Semite is at it again.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday that Jews in Europe were exposed to pogroms not because of their religion, but because of their social role and financial matters.

Speaking during the National Palestinian Council in Ramallah, Abbas attributed the claim to Jewish scholars and said that factually, "such pogroms did not take place in Arab nations, which had Jewish communities."

So, the charge of 'Christ killers' was not a factor? Matthew?

St John Chrysostom made the charge of deicide the cornerstone of his theology

As for pogroms, besides those in the 1940s and much much earlier, let's go back to Muhammed.

Let's not forget the dhimmi status.  Forced conversions and other persecutory actions.

This is a peace partner?

____________________

UPDATE

Even the EU is upset:

The speech Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivered on 30 April contained unacceptable remarks concerning the origins of the Holocaust and Israel's legitimacy. Such rhetoric will only play into the hands of those who do not want a two-state solution, which President Abbas has repeatedly advocated.

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Abbas Unhinged and Identity Theft

How bad was Mahmoud Abbas' historical revisionism?

[UPDATE: The transcript]

Let us count the ways.

First from the censored WAFA version I caught earlier:

The Question Palestine is intricately linked with the United Nations...and via the essential and lauded role of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East - UNRWA - which embodies the international responsibility towards the plight of Palestine refugees, who are the victims of Al-Nakba (Catastrophe) that occurred in 1948. 

1. If the UN counts, why not the League of Nations and its support for the reconstitution of the historic Jewish home in Palestine?

2. Mentioning discredited UNRWA?

The core issue here is that the Israeli government refuses to commit to terms of reference for the negotiations that are based on international law and United Nations resolutions, and that it frantically continues to intensify building of settlements on the territory of the State of Palestine.

3. No. The Palestinian Authority refuses to recognize Jewish national identity.

Settlement activities embody the core of the policy of colonial military occupation of the land of the Palestinian people 

4. Those activities are specifically guaranteed by international law, Article 6, League of Nations, July 1922.

5. Moreover, if Jews cannot 'settle' in the Land of Israel, where can they reside?

At the same time, the occupying Power continues to impose its blockade on the Gaza Strip and to target Palestinian civilians by assassinations, air strikes and artillery shelling, 

6. If no Arab terror activity, no shellings, mortars, rockets or tunnels, no restrictions.

In recent years, the criminal actions of armed settler militias, who enjoy the special protection of the occupation army, has intensified with the perpetration of frequent attacks 

7.  Attacks have gone down. They are dealt with by police. Are Arab terrorists paid the the PA coffers for killing Jews?

we agreed to establish the State of Palestine on only 22% of the territory of historical Palestine - on all the Palestinian Territory occupied by Israel in 1967.

8. Of all the original territory of "Palestine", Israel is but 25%.

I appealed to the British Government to rectify the grave injustice it inflicted upon the Palestinian people when it issued the Balfour Declaration in 1917, promising Jews a national homeland in Palestine, despite the fact that Palestine was inhabited by the Palestinian people and was among the most progressive and prosperous countries

9.  To do that, Abbas is requesting a negation of Zionism per se.


This "official" version, as does Haaretz and Times of Israel, leaves out all this negative, irrational, myth-creating and fantasy.  And watch the MEMRI recording. As Noah Pollack writes:

the [NY] Times left out all the good stuff–the rank anti-Semitism, the crazed conspiracy theorizing, the threats of violence, the glorification of terrorists. 

Even Barak Ravid, formerly of Haaretz and now Senior Diplomatic correspondent, Channel 10 News had to admit:

Palestinian President Abbas's speech at the PLO conference right now is becoming more and more delusional

And former US Ambassador Shapiro wrote it was:

a shameful speech full of bizarre canards about Israel's illegitimacy

Now, to the MEMRI clip: 

Again, the "Palestinians" preceded the Jews:

Cromwell came up with an idea:

Why?

What really happened is

In 1653, at Oliver St John’s suggestion, Cromwell issued an official directive to authorise, “Menasseh ben Israel, a rabbi of the Jewish nation, well respected for his learning and good affection to the State, to come from Amsterdam to these parts.”

In other words, just the opposite direction! 

This too:

To do what?

The man is psychotic.

More:

He wasn't a grandfather and it was in 1841:

More. In 1840,

And what did Herzl declare? Really?

He mentions the fictitious Campbell-Bannerman report.

It gets worse. Watch it all.  And now, read it.

I have termed this "identity theft".

And read this blogpost.

And this one, too.

^

Abbas Talks, Medad Comments (UPDATED)

Excerpts from Mahmoud Abbas' speech at the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and my brief comments:

1.

I salute our Christian and Muslim people inside and outside the walls of the Old City, the protectors of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Church of the Resurrection, the guards of the walls of Jerusalem

No Jews. There are no Jews in his concept of a "Palestine".

2.

President Trump's declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel...is a flagrant violation of international law and signed agreements, especially Security Council resolutions,

International law and Security Council resolutions do not go hand-in-hand and if Arabs rejected 181 in 1947 and the city's internationalization, you can't claim it is relevant today. 

3.

We will remain together and calmly defend Jerusalem and support your steadfastness with all our potential. The plots that target our city and the capital of our state,

Even if Abbas thinks he rules a "state", "Arab Palestine", how can he declare Jerusalem its capital while at the same time deny that Israel cannot do the same?

4.

It is a Palestinian Arab Muslim Christian city, the eternal capital of the state of Palestine

See point One.  "Arab Palestine" i an racist and apartheid intended state-to-be.

5.

Our role in the fight against terrorism in our region and the world is known to all. 

After the Mufti, the Black Hand (al-Kaff al-Aswad), Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, the Terror Bands of 1936-39, the Fedayeen, the PLO, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, et al., to portray the Palestinian Authority which incites to terror and fighting against is perversion.

6.

Israel...invaded our land, expelled our people, destroyed more than 400 Palestinian villages and towns, and violated all international resolutions, including resolutions 181, 194, 

So the conflict isn't a post-1967 one but an historical confrontation stretching back over centuries. It is not about territory but existence and Jewish national identity. 

7.

We will continue our efforts to build our national institutions

Since 1993 (at the minimum if we start at Oslo), the PA has been "building institutions".  That's some 24 years.  Nothing really to be proud of.  In comparison, review what the Jewish Yishuv did 24 years after the League of Nations decision in 1922. We had a state, fully functioning.

8.

recognizing the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital

Thereby limiting, as was done between 1948-1967, Jewish rights to visit our holy places, be secure in a city that has been Jewish for 3000 years and in which Arabs expelled Jews, ethnically-cleansing the city of its Jewish residents, destroying synagogues and grave tombs and more.


Thanks to IsraellyCool, I need to add one more point as I notice that my source was the "unofficial translation", in other words, the edited one:

Abbas also said

Yes, women and men believe in our right and God's promise to us, that this holy Palestinian city and since it was founded by the Canaanite Jebusites five thousand years ago were not and will not be other than the capital of our independent state and the sovereign the State of Palestine; 

Arab so-called Palestinians have nothing to do with Jebusites, Canaanites, Hittites or whatever.

But there's also this:

 “I don’t want to discuss religion or history because they are really excellent in faking and counterfeiting history. But if we read the Torah it says that the Canaanites were there before the time of our prophet Abraham and their [Canaanite] existence continued since that time, this is in the Torah itself. But if they would like to fake this history, they are really masters in this and it is mentioned in the holy Quran they fabricate truth and they try to do that and they believe in that but we have been there in this location for thousands of years.”

^

"Filthy Feet" 1927

In the Bnai Brith Messenger periodical of March 11, 1927, three Jewish university students, traveling with some 400 of their peers on a study trip to the Middle East, published their reminisces of the visit.

That visit also included entering the Dome of the Rock n the Temple Mount.

What I found:

Notice the foot covered in cloth:

Shades of Mahmoud Abbas!

In his own words:

But somehow, I think it more hostile when directed at Jews rather than tourists.

^

^

Suspension of Belief

As officially reported, President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday...

“In the name of the Palestinian leadership, I declare the suspension of all contacts with the occupying country on all levels until Israel revokes all its measures against our Palestinian people and Jerusalem, particularly at Al-Aqsa Mosque, and preserve the historic status quo at Al-Aqsa Mosque...We also reject the so-called electronic gates because they are a political move hiding under the cover of an imaginary security pretext that aims to control Al-Aqsa Mosque and evade the peace process as well as turn the conflict from a political one to a religious conflict,” he added.

I wish to comment on this bit:

 preserve the historic status quo

and hope you all are astounded at his other claim, of "an imaginary security pretext". 

But first, let us remember Abbas' words on September 16, 2015:

"The Al-Aqsa [Mosque] is ours... and they have no right to defile it with their filthy feet. We will not allow them to, and we will do everything in our power to protect Jerusalem."

David Weinberg picked up the theme of 'What status quo?' already and my long-time readers well know that I have noted the ludicrousness of that so-called status quo.

Two new mosques have been constructed at the Temple Mount since 1967 and a third is under construction at the site of the Barclay Gate.

The visiting times for non-Muslims have been altered.

The area in which non-Muslims can visit were changed.

And that "historic" qualifier is from 1967.  The previous claims of a status quo actually related to Jewish rights of prayer at the Western Wall!

The status quo at the Patriarchs' Cave in Hebron, that no Jews be permitted not only inside but to ascend higher than the 7th step outside no longer exists.

Abbas expects us to suspend our beliefs as regards history and tradition.

^

Who Is Poisoning What?

.

^

Can We Hear It From The Left?

Note:

The Palestinian leader said during the meeting that Jewish West Bank “settlements are a cancer in our midst” 

That was from  Abbas: Settlements are a 'cancer' (here, too).  At Ma'an, they seemingly censored that term.

Anyone remember the leftist uproar when any Israeli would describe Arabs as a 'cancer', or terror as a 'cancer'?

A response:

“Calling Jewish communities a cancer is nothing short of incitement to terrorism,” Yigal Dilmoni, deputy head of the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea and Samaria, told TPS.

CAN YOU HEAR THE LEFTISTS COMPLAINING NOW?

^

Biblical Diplomacy Suggested?

From a review of Secretary John Kerry's latest efforts:

Netanyahu and Abbas both doubled down on their positions and refused to take even the most minimal step to restore calm,..Kerry’s meeting with Abbas was no better. Sources briefed on it said Abbas refused to take even minimal confidence-building measures like condemning stabbing attacks, or at least not voicing support for the perpetrators. Abbas kept asking what Kerry had brought him from Netanyahu, and when he realized the answer was nothing, he began threatening to turn the keys of the PA over to Israel or start new diplomatic and legal campaigns against Israel at the United Nations.Afterward, Kerry phoned Netanyahu while en route to the airport and told him, “I’m out of ideas,” a source briefed on the conversation said.
The White House had already concluded that Netanyahu and Abbas were a lost cause, but now, Kerry’s aides are coming to the same conclusion.
“Our begging and pleading isn’t helping,” one American official said. “Maybe what’s needed is simply for the situation on the ground to force the sides to take action.”

2 Samuel 2:14 

And Abner said to Joab: 'Let the young men, I pray thee, arise and play before us.' And Joab said: 'Let them arise.'

^

On "Contaminators"

Mr. Abbas, remember this:

The Nazi fantasy of a German Volksgemeinschaft bereft of all its "contaminators," first and foremost the Jews, was certainly one of the most extreme, if not the most extreme, case of such political fantasies. However, Confino's cultural history indicates that Nazism and the Holocaust nonetheless belong to this continuum of violently homogenized exclusionary ethnic states, which dream of spreading over vast geographical expanses. He also teaches us that understanding these fantasies is an essential part of understanding these transgressive events.

P.S.  In another review of that book, we find

...Jews were being extruded. They were an alien Other, a source of contamination from whom the healthy German racial community had to be protected.

^

This Week's Mahmoud Abbas Word

...Abbas earlier stressed that visiting the Mosque and the city is an ‘act of support with the prisoner and does not mean normalization with the warden.’ 

^

Another "Who Said?" Quiz

Who said: "religion should not be abused for political gain".

Mahmoud Abbas:

In a special message to the participants, the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, called on Israelis to make peace with the Palestinians, a step "that will be a death blow to all fundamentalist movements and will send from the Holy Land a universal message that religion should not be abused for political gain."​

This from the person who had another opinion two days earlier:

Israel's closure of the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to all visitors following the shooting of a Jewish hardliner is tantamount to a "declaration of war," President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday.

"This dangerous Israeli escalation is a declaration of war on the Palestinian people and its sacred places and on the Arab and Islamic nation," his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina quoted him as saying.

But the oddest bit was spoken by Peres.

“The State of Israel would be giving up on its future if it pursues the status quo

and remains without peace,”

and

The status quo "is dissolving the Zionist dream."

And here I thought that the status quo must be preserved --- on the Temple Mount, only, I guess.

And you wonder why politics are so difficult here.


^ 

A Tale of Two Speeches

I selected excerpts from the "Full Official Text of President Mahmoud Abbas' Speech at the UNGA, to be delivered on September 26 with my underlining.

But there was a problem.  A different speech, in part, was delivered on September 27.

First, the pre-version:

The Question Palestine is intricately linked with...the plight of Palestine refugees, who are the victims of Al-Nakba (Catastrophe) that occurred in 1948...

...Over the past year we did not leave a door to be knocked or channel to be tested or path to be taken and we did not ignore any formal or informal party of influence and stature to be addressed...all of these sincere efforts and endeavors undertaken by international parties were repeatedly wrecked by the positions of the Israeli government...the Israeli government refuses to commit to terms of reference for the negotiations that are based on international law and United Nations resolutions, and that it frantically continues to intensify building of settlements on the territory of the State of Palestine.

Settlement activities embody the core of the policy of colonial military occupation of the land of the Palestinian people and all of the brutality of aggression and racial discrimination against our people that this policy entails.  This policy, which constitutes a breach of international humanitarian law and United Nations resolutions, is the primary cause for the failure of the peace process...

...a horrific picture about the size of the settlement campaign, which the Israeli government does not hesitate to boast about and which it continues to execute through the systematic confiscation of the Palestinian lands...The occupying Power also continues to undertake excavations that threaten our holy places, and its military checkpoints prevent our citizens from getting access to their mosques and churches, and it continues to besiege the Holy City with a ring of settlements imposed to separate the Holy City from the rest of the Palestinian cities.

...At the same time, the occupying Power continues to impose its blockade on the Gaza Strip and to target Palestinian civilians by assassinations, air strikes and artillery shelling, persisting with its war of aggression of three years ago on Gaza, which resulted in massive destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, and mosques, and the thousands of martyrs and wounded.

...In recent years, the criminal actions of armed settler militias, who enjoy the special protection of the occupation army, has intensified with the perpetration of frequent attacks against our people, targeting their homes, schools, universities, mosques, fields, crops and trees. Despite our repeated warnings, the occupying Power has not acted to curb these attacks and we hold them fully responsible for the crimes of the settlers.

...the 1948 Al-Nakba, one of the worst operations of uprooting, destruction and removal of a vibrant and cohesive society that had been contributing in a pioneering and leading way in the cultural, educational and economic renaissance of the Arab Middle East.

...we agreed to establish the State of Palestine on only 22% of the territory of historical Palestine - on all the Palestinian Territory occupied by Israel in 1967.

...1. The goal of the Palestinian people is the realization of their inalienable national rights in their independent State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, on all the land of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip...and with the achievement of a just and agreed upon solution to the Palestine refugee issue in accordance with resolution 194...

2. The PLO and the Palestinian people adhere to the renouncement of violence and rejection and condemning of terrorism in all its forms, especially State terrorism...

4. Our people will continue their popular peaceful resistance to the Israeli occupation and its settlement and apartheid policies and its construction of the racist annexation Wall...

5. ...We only aim to de-legitimize the settlement activities and the occupation and apartheid and the logic of ruthless force, and we believe that all the countries of the world stand with us in this regard.

...we have been strengthening what we seeking to be the features of our State: from the preservation of security for the citizen and public order; to the promotion of judicial authority and rule of law; to strengthening the role of women via legislation, laws and participation; to ensuring the protection of public freedoms and strengthening the role of civil society institutions; to institutionalizing rules and regulations for ensuring accountability and transparency in the work of our Ministries and departments; to entrenching the pillars of democracy as the basis for the Palestinian political life.

...It is a moment of truth and my people are waiting to hear the answer of the world.  Will it allow Israel to continue its occupation, the only occupation in the world?  Will it allow Israel to remain a State above the law and accountability?  Will it allow Israel to continue rejecting the resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations and the International Court of Justice and the positions of the overwhelming majority of countries in the world?

...I come before you today from the Holy Land, the land of Palestine, the land of divine messages, ascension of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the birthplace of Jesus Christ (peace be upon him), to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people in the homeland and in the the Diaspora, to say, after 63 years of suffering of the ongoing Nakba: Enough....

And now, from the actual one:

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

In this year, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly as the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Israel has chosen to make it a year of a new war of genocide perpetrated against the Palestinian people...the occupying Power has chosen to defy the entire world by launching its war on Gaza, by which its jets and tanks brutally assassinated lives and devastated the homes, schools and dreams of thousands of Palestinian children, women and men and in reality destroying the remaining hopes for peace...

...I have...cautioned that the colonial occupying Power was preparing for a new Nakba

Here we find ourselves, full of grief, regret and bitterness, raising the same long-standing conclusions and questions after a new war, the third war waged by the racist occupying State in five years against Gaza, this small, densely-populated and precious part of our country.

The difference today is that the scale of this genocidal crime is larger...this recent aggression is unmatched in modern times...This last war against Gaza was a series of absolute war crimes carried out before the eyes and ears of the entire world...

We must also assume that no one will wonder anymore why extremism is rising...I affirm in front of you that the Palestinian people hold steadfast to their legitimate right to defend themselves against the Israeli war machine and to their legitimate right to resist this colonial, racist Israeli occupation...we will maintain the traditions of our national struggle established by the Palestinian fedayeen and to which we committed ourselves since the onset of the Palestinian revolution in early 1965.


...Amidst a torrent of massacres and storms of massive destruction, we witnessed the peoples of the world gathering in huge demonstrations...manifestations of true solidarity constituted an important message to those who were facing genocide in Gaza, helping them to feel they felt that they were not alone.

and on the question of Jerusalem, he was more specific

The occupation’s campaign specifically targeted the City of Jerusalem and its inhabitants, attempting to artificially alter the spirit, identity and character of the Holy City, focusing on Al-Aqsa Mosque, threatening grave consequences. At the same time, racist and armed gangs of settlers persisted with their crimes against the Palestinian people, the land, mosques, churches, properties and olive trees.

As usual, the Israeli government once again failed the test of peace.

So, what happened in between?

^

Mahmoud Abbas: Friend of YESHA

Mahmoud Abbas is really helping out.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has warned Hamas it must change the way it operates in Gaza if it wants to continue in a unity government...Hamas, which controls Gaza, and Fatah - Mr Abbas's faction that dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority - had been embroiled in years of bitter rivalry until signing a reconciliation deal in April...it remains in de facto control of Gaza.

Change?

Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to break off a unity agreement with Hamas if the movement does not allow the government to operate properly in the Gaza Strip.
Speaking in Cairo ahead of an Arab League foreign ministers' meeting, the Palestinian president accused Hamas of running a shadow government and said he wanted a single authority and a single system of rule.

And, as expected, help from 

Israel's Haaretz newspaper quoted Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri as saying that Mr Abbas's remarks were based on faulty information and talks would continue to try to reconcile differences with Mr Abbas's Fatah faction.

But, if you think about it, this comes back to something I've promoted previously:

there can be no peace until Hamas and Fatah first make peace with each other.

And there is no need, given the history of their rivalry, to expect we need halt construction

And until so, I think that Abbas is doing us a great service.  My graphic comment:

^