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Maariv reported that former US secretary of state John Kerry met in London with a close associate of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, Hussein Agha, for a long and open conversation about a variety of topics. Agha apparently reported details of the conversation to senior PA officials in Ramallah. A senior PA official confirmed to Maariv that the meeting took place. *** During the conversation, according to the report, Kerry asked Agha to convey a message to Abbas and ask him to “hold on and be strong.” Tell him, he told Agha, “that he should stay strong in his spirit and...

The former US Secretary of State also surprised his interlocutor by saying he was seriously considering running for president in 2020. By BEN CASPIT/MAARIV January 24, 2018 08:08 The former US Secretary of State also surprised his interlocutor by saying he was seriously considering running for president in 2020. . . . During the conversation, according to the report, Kerry asked Agha to convey a message to Abbas and ask him to "hold on and be strong." Tell him, he told Agha, "that he should stay strong in his spirit and play for time, that he will not break and...

Putin mentioned the call with Trump at the start of his meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Monday. He said: "Naturally we spoke about the Palestinian-Israeli settlement" and told Abbas: "I would like to convey to you his best wishes." Putin met Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu exactly two weeks ago in Moscow. Russia has managed to maintain robust relations with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority government, as well as Israeli rivals Syria and Iran.

What’s today – Sunday? That’s the day Mahmoud Abbas threatened to cut off all ties with Israel. On Friday, he threatened to cut off all ties with the United States. On Thursday, he threatened to go to the Security Council to have Israel and the United States cut off from the United Nations. On Wednesday, he threatened to go before the ICC, International Criminal Court to have everybody cut off and arrested. On Tuesday, through his propaganda minister Saeb Erekat who told her to “shut up,” Abbas threatened to cut off all ties with Nikki Haley. On Monday, he threatened...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsOq4UEl2JI

UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov warned on Tuesday that Hamas-controlled Gaza on the verge of "full collapse", AFP reported. According to Mladenov, a key to saving Gaza from disaster was restoring the government of Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas to power there, a decade after it was forced out by Hamas in a bloody coup. "Without that Gaza risks exploding in our face again, this time in a far more deadly and violent manner than in the past," Mladenov was quoted as having said at the annual conference of Israel's Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv....

Davos. That's just about all you need to know. Those who do not have a relationship with Christ should be terrified at the direction the influencers in the world are going, where privacy will be sacrificed for health and where movers and shakers predict that man and machine will become one. The pursuit of a blissful and rewarding eternal life will not be achieved by man, unless he surrenders his pride and arrogance to the only One who can grant it. Otherwise, while they will exist eternally, just not in the way they choose and without excuse or escape.

Abbas would do well to study Ambassador Haley's remarks carefully and disregard Kerry's faux diplomacy Former Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly sought to undermine the Trump administration’s current policy in dealing with the nihilist Palestinian leadership. According to an article appearing in Maariv, as quoted by the Jerusalem Post, Kerry met a senior Palestinian leader, Hussein Agha, in London recently and told him to convey a clandestine message to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The message was that Abbas should “play for time” and “not yield to President [Donald] Trump’s demands.” Kerry reportedly predicted that President Trump would not be...

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday urged the member states of the European Union to “swiftly” recognize the state of Palestine, arguing such a move would preserve the Palestinians’ hope for peace. “We truly consider the European Union as a true partner and friend, and therefore we call its member states to swiftly recognize the state of Palestine and we confirm that there is no contradiction between recognition and the resumption of negotiations,” Abbas said in an address in Brussels. The Palestinian leader argued that such a move “would encourage the Palestinian people to keep hoping for peace, and...

Former Secretary of State John Kerry recently told a confidant of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that he is considering a second run for the presidency in 2020. Kerry ran unsuccessfully against President George W. Bush in 2004. His comments, reported by the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv, came during a London discussion about the Middle East peace process with Hussein Agha, a Lebanese academic who is close to Abbas. Kerry, 74, said his advanced age wouldn't be an impediment to mounting another White House bid, and urged Agha to tell Abbas to 'stay strong' and 'play for time' while Trump is...

In spite of assurances by the European Union on Monday, the London-based pan-Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat reports that Europe intends to reject Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' request to recognize the PA as a state. According to diplomatic sources, the refusal stems from fear of a worsening the situation between Israel and the PA, and also in order not to appear to respond to United States President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem...

The Palestinian president on Wednesday again blasted Donald Trump in a fiery and emotional speech, saying the U.S. leader’s decision to recognize contested Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was “sinful” and “ill-fated.” Mahmoud Abbas, who has openly cursed Trump over his policies, told a conference in Egypt that the United States has disqualified itself from continuing as a broker in the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, a role America has had for decades. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday he was certain the U.S. Embassy in Israel would be moved to Jerusalem sometime this year, much sooner than Trump administration...

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas threatened war if US President Donald Trump does not allocate Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian State. In a Cairo speech, Abbas said, "Jerusalem is the key to peace if it is our capital, and if it is not - it is the key to war. Trump will need to chose." According to Abbas, Trump provoked millions of Muslims by choosing to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. "There is no such thing as a Palestinian who will give up even one millimeter of Jerusalem," he claimed. Last week, Abbas told the Palestine Liberation...

Pic of Mogherini and Abbas shaking hands and smiling, uncopiable. A new report in the London-based Al Hayat newspaper says that Palestinian Authority (PA) chief Mahmoud Abbas will appeal to the European Union in an attempt to sideline US President Donald Trump's role in the Israeli-Arab conflict. The report quoted a senior PA figure who said that Abbas will ask the EU to increase the funding they provide to the PA in order to make up for the budget shortfall should Trump cut American aid to the PA as he has threatened. The source also said that Abbas will "ask...

In another demonization of US President Trump because of his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Movement compared Trump to Hitler, posting the image above and stating on Twitter that it does not see any difference between them: Posted text in English (all errors in source): "I don't see any different, do you ? #HandsOffAlQuds" [Official Fatah Twitter account, Dec. 14, 2017] Fatah also tweeted the following poster, stating that "Trump is an irrelevant clown":

The disconnect between the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas and the US administration of President Donald Trump has widened still further, Israeli TV reports claimed Sunday night. Abbas is said to have told all PA officials that Trump is “a lost cause” and to have ordered the PA to sever all contacts with US diplomatic officials, including those of the US consulate in East Jerusalem responsible for Palestinian affairs. The US administration, for its part, was reported to have indicated that it is seeking a Palestinian interlocutor other than Abbas with whom it might be able to do business....

The White House has decided to quietly withdraw from all its ties with the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority and Mahmoud Abbas. DEBKAfile’s exclusive sources report that the Trump administration has resolved to scrap all ties with the Palestinian leadership in retaliation for its campaign against US President Donald Trump and his Jerusalem policy. Several warnings to Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) of what was in store if he did not desist from castigating the US president fell on death ears. Last week, two Arab crown princes, Saudi Muhammed bin Salman and UAE Sheikh Muhammed bin Zayed, summoned Abbas to their capitals and...

The Palestinians will not meet with any United States officials regarding the peace process in the future, in response to US President Donald Trump’s recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a senior diplomatic adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told The Times of Israel on Sunday. The open-ended boycott includes Trump’s top peace envoy Jason Greenblatt, who is due here this week, as well as the US leader’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner. “No one from the American administration will be met to discuss peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis, because the [PA]...

Breaking with years of courting the U.S., Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called Wednesday for the United Nations to replace Washington as a Mideast mediator and suggested he might not cooperate with the Trump administration’s much-anticipated effort to hammer out an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. At a summit in Turkey, Arab and Muslim leaders “rejected and condemned” President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — the trigger for Abbas’ sharp policy pivot — but stopped short of backing his more combative approach toward Washington. A possible Palestinian refusal to engage with the U.S. and growing backlash against Trump’s shift on...

Vice President Pence called the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ decision to snub a meeting with him “unfortunate,” and that he still plans to visit the region. The statement from Pence’s press secretary on Sunday comes ahead of a planned trip to Israel and Egypt later this month. It also comes a few days after President Trump decided to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which angered Palestinians. Abbas said Saturday he would cancel a planned Dec. 19 meeting with Pence in retaliation for the embassy move. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as their capital and the move sparked...