I've discussed two outrageous parts of Abbas' speech on the anniversary of Arafat's death that were ignored by the media.
A third part, where he claims that he knows who murdered Arafat but couldn't release the information (although the answer will "amaze" everyone), was covered in Israeli media.
Here's another part of the speech, where Abbas is rushing to capitalize on UNESCO's saying that the Temple Mount is only Islamic. Even though it acknowledged that Jerusalem is holy to Jews, Abbas goes beyond UNESCO:
As you know, a while ago UNESCO has issued a resolution, and all hell broke loose. The resolution was about history and archaeological sites, and according to it, this area/region – Jerusalem – is an Islamic archaeological site.
Why are they (i.e. the Jews and others] are upset by this resolution? If we want to look back at history, in 1930 there was another resolution about the Al-Buraq Wall. These are international resolutions, and if we do not respect international resolutions, then whose resolutions are we going to respect?He is referring to the infamous 1930 paper written in the wake of the 1929 riots that declared that the Kotel was Islamic property. The threat of more Muslim violence is what animated that conclusion, just as the desire to coddle Muslim public opinion is what drives UNESCO.
Now Abbas takes these political declarations under the guise of historic research and uses it as proof that Jews have no rights to their holiest spots that have been documented from many, many centuries before Islam.
The entire reason that the Palestinians wanted to join UNESCO is for exactly this purpose - so they can use the organization to deny Jewish rights. And Abbas is doing it, explicitly, today.
Too bad the media can't find a reason to bother translating what their moderate, peace loving hero says to his people, in public.
(h/t Ibn Boutros)