Abu Mazen echoes Arafat

"Whatever you said on various occasions, whatever you talked about in different meetings... is your will, and it is our duty to carry it out as long as we live," [Abu Mazen] said, symbolically addressing Arafat. (Ha'aretz)

Cloaking himself in Arafat's legacy, interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas pledged Saturday in his first official campaign speech to fulfill Palestinian dreams of statehood. He said he had chosen the path of peace and negotiations.

"Israel must pull out of all Palestinian lands occupied in 1967," Abbas said in Ramallah.

"We cannot compromise on Jerusalem." (AP/ABC News)

Abbas said Saturday, "I will not use weapons against any Palestinian.... Israel calls them [the armed groups] murderers, but we call them strugglers."

"The withdrawal from Gaza must only be a part of other withdrawals which should follow," he said. (Jerusalem Post)

"We will do everything that we can at this stage so that they can hold proper elections. However, we expect that the next day they will enter into real action against both incitement and terrorism. Otherwise, it will be more or less as it was under Arafat." --Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom quoted in Ha'aretz.