toomuchtime_
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- Dec 29, 2008
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is disillusioned by President Obama. He tells NEWSWEEK's Dan Ephron that Obama, who seemed open to helping the Palestinian cause before his election, quickly cooled once he got into officeand at a crucial moment, betrayed him.
Things came to a head earlier this year when Obama called Abbas before a critical United Nations vote on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. For almost an hour, Abbas says, Obama tried to get the Palestinian leader to withdraw the resolutionusing first carrots then sticks, threatening that Congress might not approve the hundreds of millions of dollars America gives to the Palestinians in aid.
When Abbas refused to stand down, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called with added pressure. Still, Abbas wasn't prepared for what happened next.
When the resolution came to a vote, the Palestinian president, to his dismay, discovered that the Americans would vote against the Palestinians and veto the resolution.
It was Obama who suggested a full settlement freeze, Abbas told Ephron in one of several exclusive interviews during a whirlwind trip last week that took the Palestinian leader from Jordan to Tunisia to France, where he met with President Nicolas Sarkozy. Abbas recounted that he told Obama, OK, I accept. Then, he said, We both went up the tree. After that, he came down with a ladder and he removed the ladder and said to me, jump. Three times he did it.
We both went up the tree. After that, (Obama) came down with a ladder and he removed the ladder and said to me, jump.
Mahmoud Abbas Interview: Palestinian Leader's Frustration with Obama - The Daily Beast
It was also Obama who set the acceptance of the 1949 ceasefire line as a pre condition for renewing talks, and most dangerous of all, it was Obama who set September as the deadline for the creation of a Palestinian state and now, being forced to face the political realities, will have to veto the PA's bid for UN recognition, a move that many think may touch off a third intifada leaving thousands more dead.