Abbas asserted Friday that a Palestinian demand for a settlement freeze ahead of negotiations still stands.
"I'm ready for negotiations," Abbas said, rejecting Netanyahu's portrayal of the demand for a settlement freeze as a precondition. "Is stopping settlement activities a precondition?" he said. "There are 15 Security Council resolutions that say settlements are an obstacle to peace."
On the Israeli side, compromise on settlements seemed unlikely. Netanyahu is seeking re-election two months from now at the helm of a Likud party turned more hawkish since primaries earlier this week and in an electoral alliance with an ultra-nationalist pro-settler party.
Abbas returns Sunday to the West Bank, where Palestinians are preparing a hero's welcome. The U.N. bid has given a boost to his standing, which has been suffering after years of failed peace efforts with Israel. At the same time, the rival Islamic militant group Hamas in Gaza has scored points domestically, after an eight-day cross-border conflict with Israel earlier this month.
Abbas aides say his top priority is to reconcile with Hamas, which seized Gaza from him in 2007 and has been running its own government there since then. Abbas heads the Palestinian Authority, a self-rule government that administers 38 percent of the West Bank, while he has no say in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
The U.N. vote drew mixed reactions among Palestinians trying to reconcile global recognition with the limitations imposed by Israeli control, including border restrictions in Gaza.
Shahira Taleb, a 45-year-old Gaza housewife who has been unable to visit family in the West Bank because of an Israeli travel ban between the territories, was skeptical.
"I don't know if it's something that will change our life or is just a new paper added to thousands of papers issued over the past years in support of our cause," she said, standing in line at a bakery.
But Talal Jafari, a 47-year-old shopkeeper in the West Bank city of Hebron, said for Palestinians, every victory counts. "The entire world supports us, and that by itself is great for us," he said.
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Laub reported from Ramallah. Associated Press writer Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, Nasser Shiyoukhi in Hebron and Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City contributed reporting.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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