Editing Mahmoud Abbas (section)

===With Israel===
[[File:Rice Olmert Abbas 2007.jpg |right|thumb| Abbas meets with then [[United States Secretary of State]] [[Condoleezza Rice]] and then Israeli prime minister [[Ehud Olmert]] ]]

In January 2005, Israeli radio reported that Abbas had secured a thirty-day ceasefire from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. On 12 February, lone Palestinians attacked Israel settlements and Abbas quickly fired some of his security officers for not stopping the attacks during the ceasefire.

In April 2005, Abbas said that the killing of three Palestinians in southern Gaza by Israeli soldiers was a deliberate violation of the declared ceasefire deal. "This violation is made on purpose," Abbas said in a written statement sent to reporters in the West Bank capital of [[Ramallah]]. Abbas made the statement shortly after three Palestinian teenage boys were shot dead by Israeli troops in the southern Gaza town of Rafah. Israel claimed they thought the boys were attempting to smuggle weapons, while Palestinians claimed a group of boys were playing soccer and three of them went to retrieve the ball near the border fence.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/84DEC331-B3BD-4A1C-B2F2-186AF5683714.htm |title=Israeli troops kill Palestinian teenagers |date=10 April 2005 |website=Al Jazeera |access-date=26 January 2020 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050911055856/http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/84DEC331-B3BD-4A1C-B2F2-186AF5683714.htm |archive-date=11 September 2005}}</ref>

In July 2005, he announced that he would move his office to [[Gaza City|Gaza]] until the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops in order to coordinate the Palestinian side of the withdrawal, mediating between the different factions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4715627.stm |title=Abbas moves to Gaza for pullout |date=25 July 2005 |website=BBC News |access-date=26 January 2020}}</ref>

In March 2008, Abbas stated he was suspending peace talks with Israel, while Israeli prime minister [[Ehud Olmert]] vowed to press on with military operations against militants who have been launching home-made rockets into southern Israel.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/03/02/mideast/index.html |title=Palestinians suspend peace talks with Israel |first=Shira |last=Medding |date=2 March 2008 |website=CNN |access-date=26 January 2020 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080305184821/http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/03/02/mideast/index.html#cnnSTCText |archive-date=5 March 2008}}</ref>

In May 2008 Abbas said he would resign from his office if the current round of peace talks had not yielded an agreement in principle "within six months".  He also said that the current negotiations were, in effect, deadlocked: "So far, we have not reached an agreement on any issue.  Any report indicating otherwise is simply not true."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Emerging_Threats/Analysis/2008/05/20/analysis_the_palestinians_trump_card/6996/ |title=Analysis: The Palestinians' trump card |first=Claude |last=Salhani|author-link=Claude Salhani |date=20 May 2008 |website=United Press International |access-date=26 January 2020 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080521093753/http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Emerging_Threats/Analysis/2008/05/20/analysis_the_palestinians_trump_card/6996/ |archive-date=21 May 2008}}</ref>

Abbas has since confirmed that he turned down an Israeli offer for a Palestinian state on nearly 95% of the West Bank. In September 2008, Olmert had presented him with a map that delineated the borders of the proposed PA state, for which Israel would annex 6.3 percent of the West Bank and compensate the Palestinians with 5.8 percent (taken from pre-1967 Israel), which Abbas stated he rejected out of hand, insisting instead to demarcate the 4 June 1967 borders of Palestine. He said that Olmert did not give a map of the proposal and that he could not sign without seeing the proposal. Abbas also said that he was not an expert on maps and pointed to Olmert's corruption investigation (he was later convicted).<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.thejc.com/news/israel-news/149618/abbas-admits-rejecting-ehud-olmerts-peace-offer |title=Abbas admits rejecting Ehud Olmert's peace offer |date=19 November 2015 |work=[[The Jewish Chronicle]] |access-date=19 June 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324082013/http://www.thejc.com/news/israel-news/149618/abbas-admits-rejecting-ehud-olmerts-peace-offer |archive-date=2016-03-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.thetower.org/2580-breaking-abbas-admits-for-the-first-time-that-he-turned-down-peace-offer-in-2008/ |title=Abbas Admits For the First Time That He Turned Down Peace Offer in 2008 |date=17 November 2015 |magazine=[[The Tower Magazine]] |access-date=3 September 2024}}</ref> Abbas said in October 2011 that he made a counteroffer to let Israel annex 1.9% of the West Bank.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/28/mahmoud-abbas-remarkable-_n_1064397.html |title=Mahmoud Abbas: Remarkable Revelations In Israeli TV Interview |first=Amy |last=Teibel |date=28 October 2011 |website=[[Huffington Post]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111030071622/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/28/mahmoud-abbas-remarkable-_n_1064397.html |archive-date=30 October 2011}}</ref>

In 2012, Abbas floated the idea of accepting a [[two-state solution]] which outlined Palestine as existing within the [[1967 borders]] with a capital in [[East Jerusalem]].  In an interview with Israeli Channel 2 TV, Abbas said, "It is my right to see [the Israeli city of [[Safed]]], but not to live there."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/israel-president-welcomes-abbas-s-refugee-remarks-1.1147016 |title=Israel president welcomes Abbas's refugee remarks |work=CBC |date=3 November 2012 |agency=Associated Press |access-date=3 September 2024}}</ref> The negative reaction{{From whom?|date=October 2023}} to these words forced Abbas to backpedal.<ref>{{cite book |author=Halevi, Yossi Klein |title=Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor |location=New York |publisher=Harper |date=2018}}</ref>

According to an [[International Crisis Group]] report, most Israeli officials "do not see [Abbas] as a peace partner but consider [him] a nonthreatening, violence-abhorring, strategic asset."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://d2071andvip0wj.cloudfront.net/162-no-exit-gaza-israel-between-wars.pdf |title=No Exit? Gaza & Israel Between Wars: Middle East Report No.162 |date=26 August 2015 |website=[[International Crisis Group]] |page=33 |access-date=26 January 2020 |archive-date=12 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220612072330/https://d2071andvip0wj.cloudfront.net/162-no-exit-gaza-israel-between-wars.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In June 2016, Abbas repeated to the [[European Parliament]] a false press report that rabbis in Israel were calling for Palestinian wells to be poisoned.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.726657 |title=Abbas Repeats Debunked Claim That Rabbis Called to Poison Palestinian Water in Brussels Speech |last1=Ravid |first1=Barak |last2=Khoury |first2=Jack |date=23 June 2016 |newspaper=Haaretz |access-date=3 September 2024}}</ref> Abbas retracted the statement the following day, acknowledging that the claim was not true and stating that he "didn't intend to do harm to Judaism or to offend Jewish people around the world".<ref name="NYT-AbbasRetractsClaim">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/25/world/middleeast/mahmoud-abbas-israel-rabbis-poison-palestinian-water.html |title=Abbas Retracts Claim That Israeli Rabbis Called for Poisoning Water |last1=Hadid |first1=Diaa |date=24 June 2016 |work=The New York Times |access-date=3 September 2024}}</ref> Israel's prime minister [[Benjamin Netanyahu]] said Abbas's statement spread a "[[blood libel]]".<ref name="NYT-AbbasRetractsClaim"/><ref name="Reuters-Abbas-BloodLibel">{{cite web |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-palestinians-israel-idUSKCN0Z91J8 |title=Abbas says some Israeli rabbis called for poisoning Palestinian water |last1=Emmott |first1=Robin |last2=Williams |first2=Dan |date=23 June 2016 |work=Reuters |access-date=3 September 2024}}</ref>

[[File:Direct talks in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on September 14, 2010 2.jpg |right|thumb| Abbas meets with then US secretary of state [[Hillary Clinton]] and Israeli prime minister [[Benjamin Netanyahu]]]]