The unusual gathering March 29 in the Ramallah office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was ignored by the Israeli media despite its importance. At the height of the ongoing intifada, several dozen Israelis of Sephardic (Middle Eastern) origin came to the Palestinian leader’s headquarters, the Muqata, to talk about cooperation and peace.

Abbas went out of his way to make their visit pleasant. He told his guests that he listens to the late Moshe Eliyahu, the Syrian-born Israeli poet and lyricist (1919-1994). “We, Arabs, have a lot in common with the Arab Jews,” Abbas said. “Language, history, culture, art, music … if we reach a peace agreement, Israel’s relations with 57 Arab and Muslim states will be normalized and Israeli society will have an opportunity to live in stability with its neighbors, without fences and isolation.”

Two days later, a special interview with Abbas was aired on Channel 2’s prime-time documentary program, Uvda, in which the Palestinian president declared that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was still a partner for peace, and he spoke about his own efforts to prevent terrorism against Israelis. “Ask yourself,” he said, “why this boy, 15 years old, takes a knife, knowing he’s going to die but nonetheless goes … that’s because he has no hope.”

This is not the first time Abbas has tried to address the Israeli public over the heads of its leaders. Once every so often, even at the height of the current round of terror, he meets with Israeli journalists. Generally, he appears to encourage encounters between Palestinians and Israelis, in the spirit of the initiative reported by Shlomi Eldar for Al-Monitor: meetings between the heads of Israeli regional councils and mayors, among them members of the Likud Party, and Palestinians.