Israel's clumsy response to Abbas

The Israeli government's response to the interview that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas recently gave on Channel 2 was clumsy and careless. It reinforced the actions of the Foreign Ministry, led by Avigdor Lieberman, which have caused Israel to be perceived as having a cool attitude toward peace negotiations with the Palestinians, stymieing the efforts of Israeli diplomats to provide an alternative to the agenda put forth by Abbas.

Netanyahu and other government ministers should have welcomed Abbas' statement that he would give up his right of return to Safed, his city of birth, and they should have asked that the relevant Palestinian Authority bodies meet to approve that statement as official policy. The government also should have needled former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for the gap between Abbas' statement and the peace deal proposed by Olmert to Abbas, which included admitting a number of Palestinian refugees into Israel. (Abbas threw this proposal into the garbage, similar to when Yasser Arafat, with the encouragement of Abbas, refused to compromise with Ehud Barak at Camp David in 2000.)

As someone who believes that Netanyahu is a public diplomacy expert (as he proved with his speech on Iran's nuclear program at the United Nations in September), I do not understand why Netanyahu did not immediately make a telephone call to Ramallah, with television cameras rolling, seeking an urgent meeting with Abbas. The lack of such a move caused friendly Western diplomats to say that Israel's cool response to Abbas has placed a burden on their efforts to thwart Abbas' effort to have the Palestinians obtain non-member state status at the U.N.

It is clear, however, that groundbreaking interviews do not bear fruit during an election season. Olmert and Tzipi Livni on Sunday attacked the government and defended Abbas, giving a boost to Israel's critics in the world. But they know better than anyone that during their three years in power, they also failed to reach a peace deal with Abbas. Who can be blamed for this? Netanyahu, who was then the opposition leader?

Olmert offered to accept Palestinian refugees within Israel's pre-1967 borders and told Abbas that no Israeli government would give the Palestinians a better offer. (What does this say about Olmert-) Abbas promised to return to Jerusalem the next day, but instead has gone missing since 2009. From where does Olmert get the audacity to claim that Abbas is a "partner" for peace-

On Sunday, Abbas backtracked and clarified that he had not given up on the right of return for Palestinian refugees, but rather had only said that he personally was not interested in returning to Safed.

The Israeli government is behaving as if it does not support Netanyahu's willingness for a two-state solution. But the conduct of Abbas and his colleagues has proven without a doubt that Palestinian leaders strongly oppose such a compromise. Otherwise, they would not place preconditions on talks with Netanyahu, after having placed no such preconditions on his predecessor.