With Obama out of sight, Abbas shows his plumage

All smiles just a few days ago, Abbas now sounds like his old rejectionist self

Abbas: No 'historic compromise' -Khaled Abu Toameh

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas [pictured] rejected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's talk about an "historic compromise" and said there would be no compromises on core issues such as Jerusalem and borders.

Abbas also reiterated his rejection of Netanyahu's demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. "We're not talking about a Jewish state and we won't talk about one," Abbas said in an interview with the semi-official Al-Quds newspaper. "For us, there is the state of Israel and we won't recognize Israel as a Jewish state."
[Jerusalem Post]
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UPDATE:

Abbas Already Balking at Real Negotiations -Editorial

Faster than you can say "two-state solution," the direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks begun with such fanfare have hit their first huge obstacle: an utter unwillingness to budge on the part of PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Four days after meeting President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in the White House, Abbas told an Arabic West Bank newspaper he is not prepared to give. Not even an inch.

Abbas declared: "If they demand concessions on the rights of the refugees or the 1967 borders, I will quit. I can't allow myself to make even one concession." How do you negotiate with someone who proclaims his intransigence?
(New York Daily News)
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