Abduct hostages? That's not the Palestinian Arab way, except when it is

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
26 May '13..

Today's Haaretz quotes the president of the Palestinian Authority (elected in 2005 to a term that expired on January 15, 2009) Mahmoud Abbas speaking to the World Economic Forum meeting on the Jordanian shore of the Dead Sea this evening:

"Do you want us to abduct other Shalits? This is not part of our culture."

There's a context to the issuing of this threat. Abbas, the de facto head of one of the two Palestinian Arab statelets, devoted part of this evening's speech to lamenting the refusal of Israel to negotiate on two specific issues: Palestinian Arab refugees, and Palestinian Arab prisoners.

On 'refugees', Abbas says the Israelis tell him "...only that we don't want to talk about this issue". And concerning prisoners, he says the Israeli side tells him "Why should we release these prisoners for free?' [Source: Haaretz]

There's a context as well to the difficulties that peace-loving Mahmoud Abbas keeps running into.

Six weeks ago, the Palestinian Ma'an News Agency laid out Abbas' preconditions to getting into negotiations with the Israelis. In "Abbas tells Kerry: We are committed to peace", they are listed as:

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