Reuters running interference for Abbas yet again (updated)

Yes, Generalisimo Francisco Franco is still dead and Reuters is still apologizing for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.  Correspondent Douglas Hamilton, who should be condemned by Human Rights Watch for torturing the English language, tells us that the Quartet is preparing a written statement to usher in direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians.  However, according to Hamilton:

Abbas refuses to engage in direct talks unless [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu agrees to a clear agenda. Without one, say the Palestinians, Netanyahu may propose terms for a peace treaty that are completely unacceptable, and leave Abbas looking like a rejectionist when he turns them down.

Abbas' stated dictate, that Israel accept, ex ante, the 1949 Armistice Lines (1967 "borders") as the Israeli frontier, is laundered here to become a "clear agenda" for the talks.  And note how Hamilton speaks for the Palestinians while apologizing, in advance, for Abbas if he doesn't get all of his demands met.  A rejectionist?  Where would one ever get such an outrageous idea?

Hamilton then degenerates from euphemisms to out-and-out lies:

The Quartet says Israel should halt settlement building in the West Bank and reach a full peace agreement with the Palestinians within 24 months, creating a state on the basis of the borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East war.

The Quartet has absolutely not stated that a Palestinian state be created "on the basis of the borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East war".  Rather, the group has always left the contour of future borders to be negotiated between the parties.  But as we've demonstrated many times, Hamilton is not known for his veracity.

UPDATE AUGUST 13, 3:10 PM: In another story on US Secretary of State Clinton's efforts to coerce direct talks, Reuters correspondent Andrew Quinn repeats the lie that, per the the Quartet, a Palestinian state should be created, "on the basis of the borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East war".  Reuters apparently hopes that by repeating this canard often enough, its global audience will come to believe it -- and blame Israel for not capitulating to a demand which has been fabricated out of whole cloth by the news agency.