The Palestinians under Mr.Abbas are sticking to their demand that Israel freeze settlement construction before a return to negotiations.

VOA: standard.2009.11.16

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat,speaking on Palestinian radio, said Mr.Abbas would tell Mitchell there will be no compromises from the Palestinians on their demand for a settlement freeze.

VOA: standard.2009.09.14

They were expecting a much stronger intervention by Obama last year,in 2009, when Obama stepped back from his demand for a complete settlement freeze and this led Palestinians to feel betrayed and abandoned."

VOA: standard.2010.05.03

However, having done this it seems only to have encouraged other to come forward to demand a settlement.

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He asked for our support and got it, including the agreement that we would not demand a total settlement freeze.

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Mr Obama's administration, perhaps overconfident, persuaded him to agree that it would demand a complete settlement freeze as the price for restarting talks.

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