Abbas calls Blinken 'little boy' over refusal to confront Israel

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told a group of Palestinian Americans that he called US Secretary of State Antony Blinken a 'little boy' for succumbing to Israel's expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

During a private meeting with high-profile members of the Palestinian diaspora on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last Thursday, Abbas said he spoke to Blinken about Washington's lack of initiative in pressuring Israel to pursue peace deals with Palestinians, according to a recording obtained by Times of Israel.

“I told Blinken, ‘You little boy, don’t do that,'” Abbas told the diaspora members.

He then said that he explained to Blinken that Israel only withdrew their forces from the Gaza Strip in 1956 after US president Dwight Eisenhower ordered prime minister David Ben Gurion to do so.

“I know your history,” Abbas said he told Blinken.

Blinken has been long condemned for his staunch support for Israel, often at the expense of basic Palestinian rights.

Earlier this month, Blinken was condemned for refusing to reverse the US decision to recognise Israel as Jerusalem's capital.

In a letter to the Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, Blinken stated the Biden administration’s public vision for Jerusalem as a “rich and plural city and society” that is “central to the national visions of both Palestinians and Israelis”. 

He thanked Theophilos III for his letter to US President Biden earlier this summer, which rang the alarm over extremist Jewish forces escalating tensions and disrupting prayer in Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter. 

“Promoting freedom, security, and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians, on an equal footing, is also a key component of this administration's approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he said, avoiding direct criticism of Israel's violence. 

Blinken is also a driving force in encouraging Arab and Muslim states to normalise relations with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state.