Obama on Thursday reiterated America’s call for the parties to move quickly from indirect talks that began last month toward direct negotiations, which Israel has long called for The Palestinians agreed to indirect talks to long as they dealt with substantive issues such as borders and security, but Israel prefers to address those and all other final status topics in face to face negotiations.
He rejected out of hand the concept of a one-state solution, but said the popularity of this idea was growing among Palestinians and added to the urgency of resolving the situation so that there would be "no more demands" and an "end of claims". He also said that the matter of Palestinian refugees would be handled by an "agreed" solution.
When asked about whether under a final agreement the PA would recognize Israel as a Jewish state, Abbas told the crowd of 30 leaders of major Jewish organizations, former international security advisors and think tank expertsthat Israel would be free to describe itself however it wanted.
But he also said " Nobody denies the Jewish history in the Middle East. A third of our holy Koran talks about the Jews in the Middle East denies that the Jews were in Palestine"/
Several dinner participants described Abbas’s tone as positive and constructive.
Jr.post