Obama praises Abbas, but not Netanyahu in opinion piece published by Israeli newspaper

(Fox News) President Barack Obama offered strong praise for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an opinion piece published Tuesday in an Israeli newspaper, but had little to say about the other key player in the crisis, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"In President Abbas, Israel has a counterpart committed to a two-state solution and security cooperation with Israel," Obama wrote in the daily Haaretz. The president offered no parallel praise for Netanyahu, who is only mentioned by name once in the piece.

Obama's comments, published in Hebrew, Arabic and English, were his first public comments on Middle Eastern affairs since the murder of three Israeli teenagers last month touched off a new round of regional violence and deepening mistrust.

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