THANKS ALOT, GUYS – AT 10:02 A.M. ET:  Well, it was a good thought, I guess.  So-called "peace talks began last week between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.  Now the president of the PA has pretty much cancelled the whole affair in advance:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's talk about an "historic compromise" and said there would be no compromises on core issues such as Jerusalem and borders.

Then what is the point of peace talks?  In the end, these talks always end with Arab rejectionism. 

Abbas also reiterated his rejection of Netanyahu's demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. "We're not talking about a Jewish state and we won't talk about one," Abbas said in an interview with the semi-official Al-Quds newspaper. "For us, there is the state of Israel and we won't recognize Israel as a Jewish state."

Gee, neat.  What if we refused to recognize Muslim states as Muslim?  Can you just see our embassies burning?

Obviously, statements like this will not advance peace.  Abbas makes them because he has Arab extremists and the Western left behind him.  He could talk genocide and the Western left would still applaud.

We wonder whether President Obama will get on the phone with Abbas today and read him the riot act.  Don't hold your breath.  Riot acts are only read to America's allies.  It takes backbone to read them to enemies.  Backbone hasn't shown up on any of the president's recent X-rays or MRI's.  Specialists are upset.

So, right from the start, these talks are on life support.  Hillary Clinton will go to the Mideast later this month to preside over the second round of talks.  Given Abbas's stand, there isn't much to talk about....unless Hillary will take a big political risk and start knocking Palestinian heads.  She's experienced at knocking the Israeli heads. 

September 7, 2010