Reuters providing anticipatory cover for Abbas to quit peace talks, blame Israel

For 9 months of Israel's 10-month concession to freeze Jewish building in Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank"), Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas refused to enter into direct peace talks and Reuters served as his apologist and public relations agent, fabricating a variety of tortured excuses for his obduracy.  Although Abbas finally agreed to direct negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a couple of weeks ago, he has threatened to quit those negotiations should Israel not extend its building moratorium.  But that is not the only reason he has threatened to quit: 

Abbas stressed that he would not make any concessions to Israel.

“If they demand concessions on the rights of the refugees or the 1967 borders, I will quit. I can’t allow myself to make even one concession,” he said.

Consistent with its reputation for systematically biased coverage of the Middle East conflict, Reuters reports (ad nauseam) on the settlement issue while completely ignoring Abbas' other demands.  Reader attention is thus successfully diverted from Palestinian intransigence on key areas where compromise will be necessary to reach an agreement, and is directed instead to the upcoming expiration of the building moratorium as a rationale for Abbas to abandon talks.  This, in a transparent bid to shift the burden for a possible failure of negotiations to Israel when Abbas has clearly stated that obtaining any less than 100 percent of his demands will result in the Palestinians walking away.