Fearing Negotiations, Palestinians Add a Precondition

Palestinian leaders are afraid to restart peace negotiations with Israel because they want to avoid being pressured to make concessions to Israel. That's mainly why Israel agreed to a 10-month settlement construction freeze -- because it called the Palestinians' bluff and knew they wouldn't reciprocate anyhow.

Now that Netanyahu has taken steps like the freeze, eased travel restrictions on goods and people in the West Bank, and accepted in principle a two-state solution, to avoid negotiations Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is adding new preconditions to renewed peace talks. In a speech to the PLO Central Committee in Ramallah -- which is meeting to extend Abbas's term in office rather than hold elections in the West Bank and Gaza, where Hamas is in control and could poll well -- Abbas now says that Israel's agreeing to specific borders beforehand is a precondition of renewed negotiations, whereas before he only called for a settlement freeze.

This is obstructionism and the world community -- and especially the Obama Administration -- should call him out on it and insist that the Palestinians relent and reciproate Israel's goodwill. If they refuse, the world community ought to withhold from the Palestinian Authority legitimacy and financial support.