FOREIGN POLICY/ISRAEL/PALESTINE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority said on Sunday [1-14-18] that Israel had killed the Oslo Accords and angrily assailed the Trump administration over its handling of the conflict. He vowed to reject American leadership of any peace talks and urged Palestinians to reconsider their signed agreements with Israel… Mr. Abbas, 82, stopped well short of embracing an alternative to a two-state solution, the project around which he has built his career. The number of Israelis and Palestinians who hold out hope that such a solution can be achieved is dwindling, but Mr. Abbas said nothing about abandoning it.
He also shied away from urging the kind of provocative acts, like ending the Palestinian Authority’s security cooperation with Israel or disbanding the authority itself, that could raise the costs of occupation for Israel and shake officials in Jerusalem and Washington.
Indeed, Mr. Abbas, who reaffirmed his commitment to nonviolence and stopping terrorism, seemed to hold out hope of a return to negotiations — but with someone other than the United States leading the way.”
-David M. Halbfinger, “Abbas Calls Oslo Accords Dead and Blasts U.S.: ‘Damn Your Money!’,” The New York Times online, Jan. 14, 2018