Probably for public consumption and not serious. Abbas gains in stature the more the Israeli operation is successful, as it is narrowly-focused on Hamas.
The reason why Abbas asked France to help is because France has some leverage with Turkey, and it was Turkey who sabotaged the cease-fire earlier, trying to insert itself into the negotiations. Abbas stands to GAIN over Hamas with the deal that Egypt is presenting, which is why Abbas wants to go with Egypt’s deal and not Turkey’s deal.
It all does make sense ...
Turkey, Qatar foiled Cairo’s cease-fire proposal [Israel and Hamas]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3181151/posts
Haaretz learned that Lieberman told Borg Brende, Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, who is visiting Israel, that Hamas lied when it said Cairo had not sent it the cease-fire proposal, which Israel initially accepted.
He said Egyptian intelligence officials had given the details of the initiative to Mousa Abu-Marzook, head of the Hamas mission in Cairo.
Meanwhile, Israel agreed on Wednesday night to a request from Robert Serry, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East for UNRWA, to a five-hour cease-fire on Thursday in order to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
“Hamas was ready to consider the Egyptian proposal favorably but Qatar wanted to screw the Egyptians and told them not to accept it,” Lieberman told Brende, Haaretz learned.
He said all Qatar’s moves were coordinated with Turkey and both these states are pushing Hamas leaders not to accept the Egyptian proposals.
A senior Israeli official said that Khaled Meshal, head of Hamas’ political bureau, prefers the Qatari—Turkish mediation to Egypt’s brokerage. Meshal is close both to Qatar’s emir and to Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. Israel prefers Egypt as negotiator, especially due to its shaky relations with Turkey and severed relations with Qatar.
Let me make that clearer ... Egypt wants Abbas and the Palestinian Authority to control the Gaza side of the Egyptian-Gaza border, and NOT Hamas. This would be a way for Abbas to get back in the door in gaining control over Gaza once again!
Israel already agreed to that and would like to see that, just like Egypt would.