By Ted Belman First Obama demands a settlement freeze. This encouraged Abbas to reject negotiations until Netnyahu agreed. The there was pressure on Obama to be even handed so he agreed to get normalization concessions from Saudi Arabia et al. They turned him down flat. Thus he could no longer demand a freeze from Israel. Then the Goldstone Report was released and Obama said he would prevent it from betting to the UN for adoption. He changed this position within 24 hours. Abbas then announces that he is withdrawing his motion to have the Report adopted and all hell breaks loose. He did we are told because Obama forced him too. But apparently the political cost he will pay is too high for him to bear. So now he has reversed himself and called for an investigation of who nixed the motion.

He is also presenting himself as the protector of Jerusalem. But nobody is buying. Hamas has been greatly strengthened by all this. Abbas is looking to the Arabs more and more like an American puppet. All the work and money the US and Europe has invested in building up the “moderate” Abbas is now wasted. The deal that Egypt brokered between Hamas and Abbas is now floundering. Hamas has backed away from it. It looks more and more likely that in the upcoming PA elections, Hamas will be the winner. Khaled Abu Toameh reports all in How Goldstone may have doomed Abbas Apparently the Goldstone Report has a silver lining. It has killed the peace process. Obama is looking weaker than ever and Netanyahu is coming up smelling like roses.

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What a fiasco, for Obama, that is.