Per the AP:
“Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is making a heavy push for reconciliation with Hamas and is willing to give up hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid if that’s what it takes to forge a Palestinian unity deal, a top aide said Monday.
The comments were the latest sign that Abbas is giving up on stalled peace talks with Israel and prefers to pursue unity with Gaza’s Hamas rulers as he makes a push toward independence.”

Describing Abu Mazen as “giving up on stalled peace talks” is about as factually accurate as describing Newt Gingrich as a devoted and faithful husband. As anyone with even a casual understanding of the subject knows, there have been no peace talks for virtually all of the past two years, because Abbas and the PA have absolutely refused to negotiate despite numerous and repeated calls by Israel for them to do so. Don’t count on AP to educate its readers about this fact; it is not found anywhere in the article. One cannot “give up” on peace talks that do not exist, but this appears to be the new meme that AP will be trying to ram down its readers’ throats.

Also typically, AP treats us to a two-fer of gross distortions of fact, as the article continues

“The U.S. and Israel consider Hamas a terrorist group.”

Setting aside for the moment the fact that Hamas is, in fact, a genocidally-inclined terrorist group – for we know that the Western media will never divulge the truth of this matter to its readership – Hamas is legally designated as a terrorist organization by the following, in addition to the U.S. and Israel: Canada, the European Union, Japan, Jordan and the United Kingdom. Australia designated Hamas’ “military wing” as a terrorist organization. [en.wikipedia.org]

For anyone wondering why so many in the West erroneously think that Hamas’ character is simply an accusation leveled by the Joos and their American lapdog, all you need do is read the misinformatio