Abbas: Rejecting '47 Partition a 'Mistake'

An olive branch from Mahmoud Abbas? In a rare interview on Israeli television, the Palestinian President said the Arab refusal of the U.N.'s proposed 1947 partition of Palestine into two states was a mistake. Palestinian leaders have always insisted that it was right to oppose the General Assembly Resolution 181, which would have created Israel as well as a Palestinian state. Hamas, which controls Gaza and denies the right of Israel to exist, condemned Abbas' statement. "No one is authorized to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people and no one is authorized to wipe out any of the historical rights of our people," said a Hamas spokesman.