To the editor:

In their article "Palestinian Leader's Risky Move, 'a Desperate Cry for Help,'" David Halbfinger, Adam Rasgon and and Najib Mohammed paint only a grossly distorted half of the picture when they write that Mahmoud Abbas "has opposed violence and espoused negotiations with Israel." This is far different from what Abbas says out of the other half of his mouth, when he extols, glorifies and rewards terrorists and terrorism and when he refuses to negotiate with Israel, as he has effectively done since walking away in 2008 after being offered a sovereign Palestinian Arab state in the equivalent of all the disputed territory.

More than four years ago, Abbas' hand-picked foreign minister, Riyad al-Malki, said the Palestinian Arabs would never again negotiate directly with Israel. I find that a very strange way of "espousing negotiations with Israel."

Sincerely,

Alan Stein