Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said there won't be a new Palestinian uprising as long as he's in office, but warned the current calm might end once he steps down, as early as June.
In a 60-minute interview, Mr. Abbas rebutted charges by Israel that he was responsible for holding up peace talks, saying he twice presented privately a compromise on settlements to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Mr. Abbas said Mr. Barak ignored the offer. Mr. Barak's office didn't respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Abbas has insisted on a total freeze on settlement-building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem before any direct talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr. Netanyahu and his coalition partners have rejected any such concession.
Mr. Abbas said he would resume direct talks if Israel implemented a full but "undeclared" building freeze for five months. In his offer -- disclosed in an interview last week with Israel's Haaretz newspaper -- Israel could do so without any controversial declaration, giving its leadership political cover, he said.
A senior official in Mr. Netanyahu's office called the offer "unrealistic," a "total nonstarter."
Mr. Abbas, smoking Marlboro Reds in a leather arm chair inside the cramped office he keeps at the Palestinian embassy in Amman, cracked jokes and exuded what he said was a newfound calm since his announcement in early November that he would not stand for re-election because of the lack of progress on peace talks.
His pledge to avoid a violent uprising comes as Palestinian frustrations mount over stalled talks and growing tensions with Jewish settlers. Many analysts and ordinary Palestinians have warned that a third intifada, or violent uprising, could be around the corner. The first two intifadas, which erupted in 1987 and in 2000, left thousands dead.
"As long as I'm in office, I will not allow anybody to start a new intifada. Never, never," Mr. Abbas said. "But if I leave, it's no longer my responsibility and I can't make any guarantees."
Israeli security officials have praised Palestinian security services in recent months, but maintain that Israel's military operations in the West Bank are equally critical to the decrease in violence.
While raising the specter of violence, Mr. Abbas pressed for the U.S. and the broader international community to act more aggressively to bring Israel back to the negotiating table. Mr. Abbas voiced frustration with the White House and called on President Barack Obama to apply more pressure on Israel to freeze settlements. He said Mr. Obama should get the peace process back on track by presenting a U.S.-drafted peace proposal to both parties.
"Now the ball is in the international community's court and in America's court," Mr. Abbas said. "They have to come and say this is the end game and pressure the Israeli government." A spokesman for the White House urged Israel and the Palestinians to resume direct negotiations as the way to achieve both sides' goals.
In the interview, Mr. Abbas said he was most proud of his commitment to peace and most regretful over his failure to conclude a final peace deal.
Mr. Abbas has been on a political rollercoaster in recent months. His fortunes were on the rise in late 2009, as West Bank security and the economy improved. But when he appeared to surrender to U.S. and Israeli demands -- by agreeing to meet with Mr. Netanyahu in New York in October, and then backing the deferral of a United Nations report alleging Israeli war crimes in the Gaza War -- his administration was plunged into crisis.
Two months ago, polls showed Mr. Abbas likely to narrowly lose to the Hamas faction in elections. Aides said he made the decision not to run then, but his poll numbers have since ticked higher.
Elections, delayed from January, are now tentatively slated for June, but could be further postponed over rifts between Mr. Abbas's Fatah party and Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls the Gaza Strip.
Many believe Mr. Abbas's threat to stand down is political brinksmanship meant to galvanize the international community into ramping up pressure on Israel to make concessions for peace.
Write to Charles Levinson at charles.levinson@wsj.com [2]
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