But Israel should not pay the consequences of Arab mistake. Arabs should. That was not a mere mistake, that an attempt for the second holocaust of the jewish people. Accept the deal that Israel is offering you for peace, accept the Jewish state.

...considering his constituency

It seems that either autor of the article is not well familiar with the history, or intentionally dezinformes the readers by not critisizing Abbas for manipulating historical facts. 1947 plan was to partitian Palestine into 2 states: Jewish and Arab (not Jewish and Palestinian states) . There was no such word as Palestinian for any specific arab nation. Palestine was the name of entire British Mandate Territory, which included not only the Land of current Israel but also Judea and Samaria ( currently named West Bank) and Jordan as well. All living in Palestine Jews and Arabs as well were called Palestians. Arabs (not misterious Palestians) refused to accept UN plan of partition this territory into 2 states. Group of Arabs living on all territories outside Jordan all of a sudden in 1967 decided to call themselves Palestians. I hope that someone from Israel side corrected Abbas, if that was his historical tale.

One can judge historical fact only from time of these facts. Mohamed Abbas also should and then it would be clear that in 1947/40 the conditions of the young UN to respect for statehood the will of the concerned people been dismissed by the same UN. How Arabs, not to mention Palestinians, could have accepted a new colonial jewish state on their soil? M.Abbas also erres if he says, Israel should not punish the Palestinians because of their refusal of UN-Partion Plan of 1947. In fact, Israel does not "punish" them, but fully enjoys and exploits this 1947/48 refusal by the Palestinian leaders of these times. Even Ben Gurion accepted the partition plan as a first step only. President Abbas better should recall history in order to understand, what Israel wants.

The Arabs didn't just err in 1947, they also did in 1920, 1929, 1936 when they started racist riots against Jews based on little more than rumors. The Arabs erred in 1948 when they started a genocidal war against the Jews and lost. The Arabs erred when they created the refugee problem which they have refused to address for 64 years. The "Palestinians", who were not different from the Arabs in 1947, continued to err when they launched wars against Israel and led terrorist attacks against civilians, causing the 1967 war which again, Arabs lost. To this day, Arabs have refused to see Israel exist, and Abbas, just recently, declared his goal of destroying Israel by making endless demands and pushing 5 million hostile foreigners into Israel, even AFTER a peace deal is signed. Yes - the Arabs did err in 1947, but the same racism that drove their actions 64 years ago drive their goals today. Abbas simply continues to make mistakes.

If "Palestinians" are a separate people from the Arabs as Abbas sort of claims, how come he keeps going to the Arab League for their approval on any action with Israel, rather than act as the leader of a so-called unique population? If he blames Arabs for the mistakes of the past, why does he continue to rely on their opinions, AND continue to perpetuate mistakes?

Is Abas having second thoughts about one of the many opportunities he had missed in making peace with Israel? Or he is tap dancing again, since Condoleezza Rice's book will show him for the lier and fool he is?