Thursday, Sept. 15, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas went back on his assurance 24 hours earlier to Saudi, European and Egyptian officials and decided to go through with his application to the UN Security Council on Sept. 23 for the admission of a Palestinian state to the world body. This was a pointed rebuff to the Obama administration whose envoys offered to renew US ties with the Palestinians if they refrained from applying to the Security Council. Tuesday, Abbas met with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Cairo.

Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas follows Saudi, Libyan and Syrian rulers in turning their backs on the Obama administration. He opted for a partnership with the military-capable Hamas and thereby thrown the US-Turkish-Israeli axis off-course.

Wednesday, March 23, the second Grad missile hit Beersheba in 4 hours, 7 more mortar rounds exploded in the Eshkol district. debkafile: Hamas and Jihad Islami extremists feel free to shoot heavy missiles and dozens of mortar rounds at civilians in Israeli towns and villages, bucked up by support from post-Mubarak Egypt, Mahmoud Abbas' pursuit of Palestinian reconciliation and, most of all, by Israeli leaders' hesitancy to shoot them down because they are still playing by the old, pre-Arab Revolt rules.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas received a stern ticking-off when he called Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Saturday, March 12, to condemn the savage murder Friday night by Palestinian terrorists of the parents and three small children of an Israeli family while they slept at their home at Itamar on the West Bank.  The Prime Minister, knowing Abbas had quietly tipped Fatah heads to endorse the perpetrators, accused him of hypocrisy. Does Abbas want to stir up another Palestinian uprising?

 

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has joined the foreign and domestic chorus pushing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to launch a fresh initiative to end the stalemate in the peace process with the Palestinians. debkafile's analysts advise Netanyahu to hold his horses until the Arab revolt is better defined and the shape of the Palestinian leadership and state emerging from the Middle East turmoil is clearer. Arab protesters are ignoring Israel and, for now, its conflict with the Palestinians is a non-issue.

The emir of Qatar had the Al Jazeera network which he owns run the Palestinian Papers to blacken the Palestinian Authority and its leader Mahmoud Abbas in order to please Tehran. But the emir may not have been the only schemer behind the leaks. They may have been contrived ...

The first take of the "Palestine Papers run Sunday night, Jan. 23, appearing on the Qatar-owned Arabic Al-Jazeera TV network is a transparent attempt to discredit Palestinian Authority leaders, especially Mahmoud Abbas and Saab Erekat, as ready to sell their people out by exaggerated concessions to Israel - especially on Jerusalem and Temple Mount. Both dismiss the "papers" as a pack of half-truths and distortions.

debkafile reveals they were sold to the TV network by a disgruntled Palestinian staffer fired from the PA's NFU-Negotiating Support Team.

Tehran is promoting the creation of a Hamas government-in-exile. It will remain secret until the moment is at hand to topple the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and take its place. Hamas-Gaza is left out in the cold.

debkafile's Washington sources disclose that the three-month settlement construction freeze-for-incentives deal Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu discussed with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday, Nov. 12, also included a commitment to hold negotiations with the Palestinians during that period on final borders. Assuming the talks collapse, the Obama administration will itself chart those borders and present an American map to both sides before the three months are up. This map will closely adhere to Palestinian aspirations.

Direct Israeli-Palestinian talks, interrupted in September after less than a week, will resume in January, 2011 following a quiet deal between the US, Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, debkafile's sources disclose. Obama administration officials are upbeat after four new developments unsnarled the gridlock. Most significantly, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu agreed to a second, partial settlement building freeze and Mahmoud Abbas to drop a bid for UN recognition of unilateral statehood.

The Obama-Clinton Grand Middle East design falls foul of four players who have suddenly stepped out of position: Hassan Nasrallah, Mahmoud Abbas, Nouri al-Maliki and Hosni Mubarak.