Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas supposedly is willing to accept an unannounced freeze on building by Jews in Judea and Samaria in order to pave the way for a return to talks with Israel, according to The New York Times.
The newspaper more often than not follows the Obama administration policy line and serves as vehicle to float its ideas.
A document authored by PA negotiator Saeb Erekat was document quoted by the Times stated that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu “can pledge to you [presumably Obama] secretly that he will stop settlement activities during the period of negotiation.”
An “unnanounced” freeze would be Abbas’ grandiose “concession” to Israel, allowing Netanyahu to freeze building without officially admitting it to the nationalist Jewish Home party, a key partner in the new coalition government.
Whether true or not, the report will help President Obama put more pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu to let both Abbas and the American government to climb down from the weak limb of the “peace process.” which has been the corner stone of American involvement in the attempt by the Palestinian Authority to establish an independent country based on the Temporary Armistice Lines drawn in 1949, otherwise known as the Green Line.