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ISRAEL'S Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has launched a scathing attack on the uprisings across the Arab world, saying countries are ''moving not forward, but backward'' and support from the US and European countries was naive.
Mr Netanyahu said the so-called Arab Spring was becoming an ''Islamic, anti-Western, anti-liberal, anti-Israeli, undemocratic wave'' and that concessions to the Palestinians were unwise amid such uncertainty.
''In February, when millions of Egyptians thronged to the streets in Cairo, commentators and quite a few Israeli members of the opposition said that we're facing a new era of liberalism and progress … They said I was trying to scare the public and was on the wrong side of history and don't see where things are heading.''
But, he told Israel's parliament, events had proved him correct. ''I ask today, who here didn't understand reality? Who here didn't understand history?''
Mr Netanyahu's remarks came as Cairo, the focal point of Egyptian protests, hosted two key political summits.
In a special meeting, the Arab League gave the Syrian regime 24 hours to admit a mission of 500 civilian and military observers to monitor the human rights situation and oversee efforts to carry out a peace plan that Syria agreed to on November 2.
The league said that if Syria refused to admit the monitors, it would meet again today to discuss sanctions that could include the suspension of all trade except for essential humanitarian goods, a ban on flights to Syria, a travel ban on Syrian officials, and the suspension of all transactions with the central bank and of all Arab economic projects under way in Syria.
The ultimatum came as Syrian tanks shelled positions held by army defectors near the central town of Rastan. Opposition activists reported at least 24 people killed in clashes with security forces, mostly in Rastan and the key city of Homs.
After separate talks in Cairo, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashal (right and left below) both hailed an agreement to hold legislative elections in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip in May.
''With this meeting, we have opened a new page in which there is a high level of understanding,'' Mr Mashal told the Palestinian WAFA news agency.
The two leaders agreed to release political prisoners held in their respective prisons and fixed December 22 for a meeting of all Palestinian factions in Cairo to discuss formation of a unity government.
Some Palestinian analysts interpreted the display of unity with Hamas as a sign that Mr Abbas is abandoning a US-led peace process in favour of popular resistance to Israeli occupation.
''The situation as it stands now is unbearable,'' said Samir Awwad, professor of International Relations at Birzeit University.
''The US, who are meant to be interlocutors in the peace process, have finally exposed their position and sided squarely with Israel. What remains for Abbas and the Palestinians but to oppose Israel's aggressive expansion of settlements and its annexation of Jerusalem with united popular resistance?''
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