White House urges Abbas to choose hate or peace

RAMALLAH: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas labeled the US ambassador to Israel David Friedman a “son of a dog” on Monday during an attack on Donald Trump’s policies. The scathing comments come with US President Trump still expected to launch a plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians despite Abbas boycotting his administration over his controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. “The US ambassador in Tel Aviv is a settler and a son of a dog,” Abbas said in comments to Palestinian leaders in Ramallah.

The White House later Monday slammed Abbas’s “insults”, saying he must choose between hate and peace. “The time has come for President Abbas to choose between hateful rhetoric and concrete and practical efforts to improve the quality of life of his people and lead them to peace and prosperity,” top Trump aide Jason Greenblatt said in a terse statement Relations between Abbas’s government and Trump’s administration have broken down since the White House recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December.

The Palestinians also see the disputed city as the capital of their future state and have refused to meet with Trump’s envoys since. Friedman, who was Trump’s personal lawyer before being appointed last year, is a longstanding supporter of settlement building in the occupied West Bank, considered illegal under international law. In response to Abbas, Friedman, who is Jewish, told a conference that Abbas’s comments could have anti-Semitic connotations. “His response was to refer to me as son of a dog. Is that anti-Semitism or political discourse? I leave that up to you,” he said, according to a US embassy spokeswoman.

Abbas’s comments appeared to be in response to a tweet by Friedman earlier on Monday. In it he referred to an attack in the West Bank as “in the north”, raising questions over whether he views it as part of Israeli territory, and accused Abbas’s Palestinian Authority (PA) of failing to condemn it. “Such brutality and no condemnation from the PA!” he tweeted, referring to a Friday car ramming that killed two soldiers and a Sunday stabbing in Jerusalem that left an Israeli dead, both carried out by Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later denounced Abbas’s remarks on Twitter. “For the first time in decades, the US administration has stopped pampering Palestinian leaders and tells them ‘that’s enough’. Apparently the shock of the truth has caused them to lose their mind,” he said.

Israel has militarily occupied the West Bank and east Jerusalem since 1967. Abbas’s government has limited autonomy in parts of the West Bank, while the Jewish state annexed east Jerusalem in a move never recognized by the international community. All countries currently have their embassies in Tel Aviv and view the future status of Jerusalem as a matter to be negotiated between the parties. But in December Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and in May Friedman will become the first US ambassador in the city as the embassy is moved.

Bomb attack

Separately during the speech, Abbas accused rival Palestinian faction Hamas of a bomb attack targeting his prime minister Rami Hamdallah last week and threatened fresh sanctions against the Islamist movement. Abbas had previously said Hamas was responsible as it controls security in the Palestinian enclave, but Monday evening said it was “behind the attack”. Hamdallah was uninjured in last Tuesday’s attack, which saw a roadside bomb explode as his convoy entered Gaza in what Palestinian officials have called an assassination attempt. Six of his security guards were lightly hurt. In the speech to Palestinian leaders in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Abbas said if the attack had succeeded it would have “opened the way for a bloody civil war”.

Hamas condemned what it called Abbas’s “provocative positions,” saying its security services were still investigating the explosion. The Islamists and Abbas’s secular party Fatah have been at odds since 2007 when Hamas seized control of Gaza in a near civil war. Abbas controls the internationally recognized Palestinian government, based in the occupied West Bank which Hamdallah leads. Abbas has previously taken a series of measures, including reducing electricity payments for Gaza’s two million residents, in what analysts said was an attempt to punish Hamas. Hamas and Fatah agreed a reconciliation agreement in October but it has collapsed.- AFP</s>Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday called the US ambassador to Israel a "son of a dog" because of his support for Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Mr Abbas, speaking at a Palestinian leadership gathering, also blamed Hamas for a bomb attack last week on the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Gaza, remarks that threatened reconciliation efforts with the Islamist group.

The Palestinian leader accused Ambassador David Friedman of defending Israeli settlers in the West Bank by saying that they were building on "their land". The slur drew rebukes from the diplomat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In an angry tone, Mr Abbas said: "The son of dog says they build on their land? He is a settler, and his family are settlers, and he is the US ambassador in Tel Aviv. What should we expect from him?"

Mr Friedman, a strong supporter of Israel's settler movement, was an early and enthusiastic advocate of US President Donald Trump's decision in December to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital and to move the US embassy there.</s>GAZA (Reuters) - The Palestinian Authority said on Wednesday it asked Israel to fully restore Israeli electricity flows to the Gaza Strip, a move that could nearly double the daily connection time in an enclave suffering severe power shortages. 

 There was no immediate word from Israel whether it would comply at a time when it says the Islamist Hamas group, which controls Gaza, bears overall responsibility for recent cross-border rocket attacks launched by smaller militant factions.

 In a statement, Hussein Al-Sheikh, Palestinian minister of civil affairs, said the Palestinian Authority would again guarantee payment of Gaza's Israeli electricity bill and ask Israel to restore the 50 megawatts of power, out of a total 120 megawatts, that it had supplied to the area.

 A statement issued by Prime Minister Rami Al-Hamdallah said the request was to "alleviate the suffering of the people of Gaza and to improve living conditions."

 Gaza's two million residents now receive only three to four hours of electricity a day, with schools, factories, hospitals and households affected. A Gaza economist said restoration of power from Israel, the enclave's main electricity supplier, could raise that figure to six hours. Gaza's sole power station generates only a small amount of electricity.

 In April, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced he was cancelling the guarantee, part of a bid to press Hamas to loosen its hold over the enclave, a decade after the Islamist movement seized the territory from forces loyal to him.

 Prompted partly by Abbas's sanctions and fears of financial and political isolation, Hamas signed an Egyptian-brokered reconciliation agreement with his Fatah movement in October and agreed to hand over administrative control of the Gaza Strip to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.

 But both groups have failed to finalize details of the deal, which had been due to be completed on December 1. The Authority's decision to resume the electricity payments could help smooth the way towards completing the accord.

 The PA's request coincides with heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions. 

 Palestinians have been mounting protests in the occupied West Bank and violence has flared along the Israel-Gaza border since U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Dec. 6 that he was recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a state they seek to establish in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

 In the West Bank on Wednesday, Israeli troops shot dead a 17-year-old Palestinian during a confrontation with stone-throwing protesters, Palestinian medics said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said he appeared to have been holding a firearm.

 His death raised to 13 the number of Palestinians killed in clashes with Israeli forces since Trump's declaration, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. There have been no Israeli fatalities or serious injuries in the confrontations or as a result of the rocket strikes.

 Two Hamas gunmen were killed in one Israeli retaliatory air strike in December.

 

 (Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and William Maclean)</s>United States, U.S. and Israeli officials have lambasted Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, after he called the American ambassador to Israel a “son of a dog” and a “settler” in a fiery speech the day before.

On Tuesday, Israeli Minister for Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi called the statement “inflammatory” and “inexcusable.”

“Negotiations, not insults and hate, are the path to peace and prosperity in the region,” Hanegbi said in a tweet a day after U.S. Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman insinuated that the remark is anti-Semitic.

The war of words comes at a low point in U.S.-Palestinian relations. US President, Donald Trump recognized the contested city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last December, sparking Palestinian outrage.

President Abbas of Palestine has since said that the U.S can no longer maintain its decades-long role as the main mediator between Israelis and Palestinians, while the White House says it is still planning to release a peace plan.

Speaking at the start of a Palestinian leadership meeting in Ramallah on Monday, Abbas sharply increased tensions with the rival Hamas faction, saying that Hamas was behind an assassination attempt on the Palestinian prime minister on Friday.

Abbas, who controls the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority government, said that he would respond to the attack with “national, legal, and financial measures.”

The Palestinian leader’s strong words appear to foreshadow a new pressure campaign against Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

Abbas has already withheld electricity payments to the coastal enclave in an attempt to mount pressure on Hamas to cede power, causing blackouts for Gaza residents.</s>The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has labelled the US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, a “son of a dog” during a scathing attack on Donald Trump’s policies.

“The US ambassador in Tel Aviv is a settler and a son of a dog,” Abbas said in comments to Palestinian leaders in Ramallah on Monday.

Relations between Abbas’s government and President Trump’s US administration have broken down since the White House recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December.

The Palestinians see the disputed city as the capital of their future state.

Friedman, who was Trump’s personal lawyer before being appointed last year, is a longstanding supporter of settlement building in the occupied West Bank, considered illegal under international law.

In response to Abbas, Friedman, who is Jewish, told a conference that Abbas’s comments could have antisemitic connotations.

“His response was to refer to me as ‘son of a dog’. Is that antisemitism or political discourse? I leave that up to you,” he said, according to a US embassy spokeswoman.

Abbas’s comments appeared to be in response to a tweet by Friedman earlier on Monday.

In it he referred to an attack in the West Bank as “in the north”, raising questions over whether he views it as part of Israeli territory, and accused Abbas’s Palestinian Authority (PA) of failing to condemn it.

“Such brutality and no condemnation from the PA!” he tweeted, referring to a Friday car ramming that killed two soldiers and a Sunday stabbing in Jerusalem that left an Israeli dead, both carried out by Palestinians.



Israel has militarily occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967. 



Abbas’s government has limited autonomy in parts of the West Bank, while the Jewish state annexed East Jerusalem in a move never recognised by the international community.

All countries currently have their embassies in Tel Aviv and view the future status of Jerusalem as a matter to be negotiated between the parties.

But in December Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and in May Friedman will become the first US ambassador in the city as the embassy is moved.

Separately during the speech, Abbas accused the rival Palestinian faction Hamas of a bomb attack targeting his prime minister, Rami Hamdallah, last week and threatened fresh sanctions against the Islamist movement.



Abbas had previously said Hamas was responsible as it controls security in the Palestinian enclave, but on Monday evening said it was “behind the attack”.

Hamdallah was uninjured in last Tuesday’s attack, which saw a roadside bomb explode as his convoy entered Gaza in what Palestinian officials have called an assassination attempt.

In the speech to Palestinian leaders in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Abbas said if the attack had succeeded it would have “opened the way for a bloody civil war”.

The Islamists and Abbas’s secular party Fatah have been at odds since 2007 when Hamas seized control of Gaza.

The two factions agreed a reconciliation agreement in October but it has collapsed.</s>The administration of US President Donald Trump lashed out at Palestinian Authority Chairman, Mahmoud Abbas for calling US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman “a son of a dog” on Monday.

“President Abbas’s comments were outrageous and unhelpful,” said US State Department spokeswoman, Heather Nauert.

“We urge the Palestinian Authority to focus its efforts on improving the lives of the Palestinian people and advancing the cause of peace. The administration remains fully committed to those goals.”

Abbas made his remarks during a meeting with other officials in the Palestinian Authority and shortly after the US ambassador called the PA out for not condemning separate terror attacks over the last few days. While insulting Friedman, the PA chairman referred to the ambassador’s acceptance of Israel’s presence in the Biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria.

“The ambassador, David Friedman, said they’re building on their own land,” Abbas was reported to have said. “You son of a dog, building on their own land?! You are a settler and your family are settlers!”

“The time has come for President Abbas to choose between hateful rhetoric and concrete and practical efforts to improve the quality of life of his people and lead them to peace and prosperity,” Greenblatt wrote in a statement on Twitter.

“Notwithstanding his highly inappropriate insults against members of the Trump administration, the latest iteration being his insult of my good friend and colleague Ambassador Friedman, we are committed to the Palestinian people and to the changes that must be implemented for peaceful coexistence,” he added.

For his part, Ambassador Friedman responded from Jerusalem while addressing the Sixth Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism. “Antisemitism or political discourse? Not for me to judge, I will leave that up to you,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also joined in the chorus of criticism directed against Abbas.

“For the first time in decades, the American administration has stopped pampering the Palestinian leaders and tells them, that’s it,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

“Apparently the shock of the truth has caused them lose their cool. Mahmoud Abbas’s attack on US Ambassador David Friedman says it all.”</s>RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday called the U.S. ambassador to Israel a “son of a dog” because of his support for Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.</s>Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday called the US ambassador to Israel a “son of a dog” because of his support for Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. Abbas, speaking at a Palestinian leadership gathering, also blamed Hamas for a bomb attack last week on the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Gaza, remarks that threatened reconciliation efforts with the Islamist group.

The Palestinian leader accused Ambassador David Friedman of defending Israeli settlers in the West Bank by saying that they were building on “their land”. The slur drew rebukes from the diplomat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In an angry tone, Abbas said: “The son of dog says they build on their land? He is a settler, and his family are settlers, and he is the US ambassador in Tel Aviv. What should we expect from him?”

Friedman, a strong supporter of Israel’s settler movement, was an early and enthusiastic advocate of US President Donald Trump’s Dec. 6 decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to move the US embassy there. Friedman responded during a speech in Jerusalem to a conference on combating global anti-Semitism, saying: “His response was to refer to me as son of a dog. Anti-Semitism or political discourse? Not for me to judge, I leave that all up to you.”

US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt issued a statement calling Abbas’ comment “highly inappropriate.” He said the Palestinian leader needed “to choose between hateful rhetoric and concrete and practical efforts to improve the quality of life of his people.”

Trump’s announcement on Jerusalem delighted the Israeli government but infuriated Palestinians, who have staged regular protests since then. Israel regards Jerusalem as its eternal and indivisible capital, although that is not recognised internationally. Palestinians feel equally strongly, saying that East Jerusalem must be the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Peace talks aimed at finding a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict have stalled, while Israeli settlement expansion has continued. Netanyahu said Trump’s decisions on Jerusalem appeared to have brought Abbas to the point of making a verbal attack on a US official.

“For the first time in decades, the U.S. administration has stopped spoiling the Palestinian leaders and tells them: enough is enough,” Netanyahu said on Twitter. “Apparently the shock of the truth has caused them to lose it.”

Addressing the rancour between Hamas and Fatah, Abbas said there had been “zero” progress in reconciliation, citing efforts to bring a power-sharing deal to bear on the crossings out of the Gaza Strip and on security within the enclave.

Relations have grown even worse since Hamdallah and Palestinian security chief Majid Faraj’s convoy was attacked by a roadside bomb in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on March 13. They were uninjured. “We congratulate the two big brothers (Hamdallah and Faraj) that they are safe after the sinful and despicable attack that was carried out against them by the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip,” Abbas said.

He offered no evidence of Hamas’ involvement but said he did not trust Hamas to investigate the incident honestly. “We do not want investigation from them, we do not want information from them and we do not want anything from them because we know exactly that they, the Hamas movement, were the ones who committed this incident,” he said.

Abbas said Hamas would have to give up control of Gaza or risk taking full responsibility for the enclave and its two million residents without any help from his Western-backed Palestinian Authority. “In my capacity as the president of the Palestinian people I have tolerated much in order to regain unity and unite the homeland and I was met with rejection by Hamas and their illegitimate authority,” he said. Hamas called his comments irresponsible and said they aimed to “burn bridges and reinforce divisions.”

The group has previously denied involvement in the bombing. Fatah and Hamas have tried for years to come to an accommodation over running the Gaza Strip, but have repeatedly failed to implement deals mainly brokered by Egypt.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App</s>‘The US ambassador in Tel Aviv is a settler and a son of a dog,’ Abbas said in comments to Palestinian leaders in Ramallah. (Photo: AP)

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas labelled the US ambassador to Israel David Friedman a "son of a dog" Tuesday during an attack on Donald Trump's policies.

The scathing comments come with US President Trump still expected to launch a plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians despite Abbas boycotting his administration over his controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

"The US ambassador in Tel Aviv is a settler and a son of a dog," Abbas said in comments to Palestinian leaders in Ramallah.

Relations between Abbas's government and Trump's administration have broken down since the White House recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December.

The Palestinians also see the disputed city as the capital of their future state and have refused to meet with Trump's envoys since.

Friedman, who was Trump's personal lawyer before being appointed in 2017, is a longstanding supporter of settlement building in the occupied West Bank, considered illegal under international law.

In response to Abbas, Friedman, who is Jewish, told a conference that Abbas's comments could have anti-Semitic connotations.

"His response was to refer to me as son of a dog. Is that anti-Semitism or political discourse? I leave that up to you," he said, according to a US embassy spokeswoman.

Abbas's comments appeared to be in response to a tweet by Friedman earlier on Monday.

In it he referred to an attack in the West Bank as "in the north", raising questions over whether he views it as part of Israeli territory, and accused Abbas's Palestinian Authority (PA) of failing to condemn it.

"Such brutality and no condemnation from the PA!" he tweeted, referring to a Friday car ramming that killed two soldiers and a Sunday stabbing in Jerusalem that left an Israeli dead, both carried out by Palestinians.

Israel has militarily occupied the West Bank and east Jerusalem since 1967.

Abbas's government has limited autonomy in parts of the West Bank, while the Jewish state annexed east Jerusalem in a move never recognised by the international community.

All countries currently have their embassies in Tel Aviv and view the future status of Jerusalem as a matter to be negotiated between the parties.

But in December Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital and in May Friedman will become the first US ambassador in the city as the embassy is moved.

Separately during the speech, Abbas accused rival Palestinian faction Hamas of a bomb attack targeting his prime minister Rami Hamdallah last week and threatened fresh sanctions against the Islamist movement.

Abbas had previously said Hamas was responsible as it controls security in the Palestinian enclave, but Monday evening said it was "behind the attack".

Hamdallah was uninjured in last Tuesday's attack, which saw a roadside bomb explode as his convoy entered Gaza in what Palestinian officials have called an assassination attempt.

Six of his security guards were lightly hurt.

In the speech to Palestinian leaders in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Abbas said if the attack had succeeded it would have "opened the way for a bloody civil war".

Hamas did not immediately respond to the comments.

The Islamists and Abbas's secular party Fatah have been at odds since 2007 when Hamas seized control of Gaza in a near civil war.

Abbas controls the internationally recognised Palestinian government, based in the occupied West Bank which Hamdallah leads.

Abbas has previously taken a series of measures, including reducing electricity payments for Gaza's two million residents, in what analysts said was an attempt to punish Hamas.

Hamas and Fatah agreed a reconciliation agreement in October but it has collapsed.</s>The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the U.S. ambassador to Israel a "son of a dog" and a "settler" in a fiery speech, receiving criticism from the U.S. and Israel.

"What can we expect the U.S. Ambassador to Tel Aviv? He defends the construction of homes on occupied territory. He and his family bought homes in these occupied settlements, he is the son of a dog," Abbas said.

On Tuesday, Israeli Minister for Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi called the statement "inflammatory" and "inexcusable."

"Negotiations, not insults and hate, are the path to peace and prosperity in the region," Hanegbi said in a tweet a day after U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman insinuated that the remark is anti-Semitic.

The war of words comes at a low point in U.S.-Palestinian relations. U.S. President Donald Trump recognized the contested city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December, sparking Palestinian outrage.

Abbas has since said that the U.S. can no longer maintain its decades-long role as the main mediator between Israelis and Palestinians, while the White House says it is still planning to release a peace plan.

Speaking at the start of a Palestinian leadership meeting in Ramallah on Monday, Abbas also sharply increased tensions with the rival Hamas faction, saying that Hamas was behind an assassination attempt on the Palestinian prime minister last week.

Abbas, who controls the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority government, said that he would respond to the attack with "national, legal, and financial measures."

The Palestinian leader's strong words appear to foreshadow a new pressure campaign against Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. Abbas has already withheld electricity payments to the coastal enclave in an attempt to pressure Hamas to cede power, causing blackouts for Gaza residents.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas insults U.S. Ambassador to Israel David M. Friedman, calling him a "son of a dog" when he says Israeli settlers build on their land in the occupied West Bank. The U.S. warns Abbas to "choose between hate and peace".