News Brief21:47 PM

(IsraelNN.com) Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas spoke at the Arab Summit in Damascus on Saturday and called on those assembled to send armed forces to Judea, Samaria, and Gaza to protect local Arabs from the IDF.  Abbas accused Israel of “brutally” attacking and killing innocent Arabs.  “Think seriously of Arab and international protection for our people,” he urged his listeners.

Despite a freeze on Jewish construction in Judea, Samaria, and some neighborhoods of Jerusalem, Abbas insisted that Jewish growth in those areas was undermining negotiations.  An “unprecedented Israeli escalation in settlement expansion” was endangering talks, he said.  If talks do not lead to a solution in the near future, Arabs will lose confidence in the peace process, he warned.