Abu Mazen is trying to climb down out of the International Criminal Court tree he climbed himself into.

The Lebanese newspaper Al-Achbar, reports that PA President Mahmoud “Abu Mazen” Abbas told the Egyptian president that if Israel restarts negotiations with him within the next few weeks, he won’t sue senior Israeli officials in the Hague.

The Israeli legal organization, Shurat Hadin / Israel Law Center, has already prepared and submitted multiple law suits to the ICC against senior PA officials, in preparation for the PA being accepted to the ICC.

Abbas may have woken up to the fact that he will be the one on the defendant’s chair soon enough.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas petitioned the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague on Thursday to investigate accusations Israel committed war crimes “committed in Palestine” since June 13, 2014.

The declaration was signed by Abbas on Thursday morning according to a local source who spoke with Haaretz, one day after he signed the Rome Statute, enabling the PA to join the ICC.

Early Thursday morning, officials submitted the Rome Statute document as well as letters of accession signed Wednesday by Abbas entering the PA into 20 additional international treaties, according to the WAFA news agency.

The flurry of signatures followed Tuesday’s rejection by the United Nations Security Council of a resolution calling for recognition of the PA as a sovereign state and the withdrawal of Israel by 2017 from all post-1967 territories.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned Wednesday in a brief statement that Abbas would cause more harm than good for his own people, should he attempt a criminal indictment of Israel at the ICC.

Past similar attempts have all failed because neither party was a member of the Court, which has no jurisdiction over nations who are not a signatories to the Rome Statute.

While Abbas signed the Rome Statute on behalf of the PA unity government, Israel has not joined the Court – and thus the ICC still legally has no jurisdiction over the Jewish State.

Whether in fact the Court now has jurisdiction over any geographic area conquered by Israel in 1967 – including the territory of the Palestinian Authority — is a murky question that will undoubtedly be debated among international attorneys for some time.

Some of those areas — such as the Golan Heights and the parts of Jerusalem restored to Israel’s capital during the war — have been formally annexed by the State of Israel. Members of the international community do not recognize this status, however.

If the signature by Abbas validates the jurisdiction of the Court over PA territory – which includes parts of Judea and Samaria as well as all of Gaza – it raises another question.

Perhaps a member nation – Canada, the United States or any other who has lost a citizen to PA Arab terrorism – may launch a counter-suit.

What then might be the result of a petition to the Court to investigate “Palestine’s” record on war crimes and crimes against humanity instead?

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is playing ‘chicken’ with U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli leaders.

The Arab leader, known to locals by his terrorist name, ‘Abu Mazen,’ signed papers Wednesday for the PA to officially join the International Criminal Court at The Hague. In doing so, Abbas called the bluff issued by Washington and by Israel’s government, a warning that such a step would lead to dire consequences.

The move came one day after a vote at the United Nations Security Council nixed a PA resolution sponsored by Jordan, demanding Israel withdraw its forces from all areas conquered in the 1967 Six Day War. These include much of Jerusalem, areas restored to the capital that were lost when Jordan seized parts of the city during the 1948 War of Independence.

More than half a million Israelis now live and work in the areas of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria demanded by the PA. Sites holy to the three monotheist faiths that were cleaned of the filth and garbage that accumulated during the years of Jordanian occupation are also situated therein.

“There is aggression practiced against our land and our country, and the Security Council has let us down; where shall we go?” Abbas said dramatically in a speech delivered from his headquarters, the Muqata, after signing the Rome Statute – the founding charter of the ICC – and 21 other international treaties and conventions.

“We want to complain to this organization. As long as there is no peace and the world does not prioritize peace in this region, this region will live in constant conflict. The Palestinian cause is the key issue to be settled.”

The fly in the ointment here is the fact that the Rome Statute stipulates once a nation has joined the Court, it then also becomes culpable for the crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide committed by its own government as well. Abbas may well have signed the death warrant for the Palestinian Authority all on his own, without the United States or Israel ever having had to do a single thing.

The Palestinian Authority has pounced on its first public relations opportunity to end its security cooperation with Israel – the death on Wednesday of PA Minister of Settlements Ziad Abu Ein during Arab riots against IDF soldiers.

The move was confirmed by Jibril Rajoub, a member of the Fatah central committee. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is also head of the PA’s leading Fatah faction, as well as head of the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization that liaises with the United Nations on behalf of the PA.

Israel has raised its alert status following the incident and is bracing for the inevitable Arab violence that has already begun to spread in various cities around the country.

The PA has been searching for ways to completely disengage from all ties to Israel for some time. In part, it has been egged on towards that end with increasing encouragement for its position as a so-called independent sovereign “State of Palestine” from European and other United Nation member states.  European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini visited PA leaders in the entity’s capital city, Ramallah, on November 8, to discuss its relations with Israel and other issues regarding its status with the rest of the global community.

It was Abbas who officially declared Abu Ein’s death a deliberate murder by Israeli soldiers during the clashes that emerged from riots in which the “minister” was participating near Ramallah on Wednesday afternoon.

The clashes took place in the PA village of Turmus Ayya, near the PA capital of Ramallah, in Samaria.

The “minister” was a longtime member of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah Revolutionary Council and a former Minister of Prisoner Affairs – the ministry that advocates for terrorists incarcerated in Israel.

Having been a convicted terrorist murderer himself – one who was freed by Israel in a “good will gesture” to the PA – Abu Ein had the right experience for the job. He personally planted the explosives that murdered two Jews in Tiberias in 1979.

It is still not clear how Abu Ein died, despite varying accounts from media and politicians on both sides of the security barrier.

The PA-based WAFA news agency reports Abu Ein lost consciousness after inhaling tear gas and was “hit in the chest” by an IDF soldier.

“The Israeli soldiers called Abu Ein by name and seemed to be focused on him,” witness Kamal Abu Safaka told CNN. “There was a lot of pushing, kicking and punching by the soldiers. … When Abu Ein tried to intercede, they hit him on the chest with a rifle butt and grabbed him by the throat and pushed him back and then threw a large amount of tear gas and stun grenades.”

Special Israeli envoy Yitzchak Molcho immediately carried a personal message from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to PA officials at the Muqata, informing them that Israel will investigate the circumstances surrounding the death, said a statement issued by the prime minister’s office.

“The Prime Minister, who has been holding security consultations throughout the day, pointed to the need to calm the situation and act responsibly,” the statement said.

Abu Ein, who had a medical history of high blood pressure, collapsed and subsequently died of a heart attack when Israeli “forces halted the progress of (about 200) rioters into the civilian community of Abed-Ad using riot dispersal means,” the statement continued.

The IDF is also reviewing the circumstances surrounding the incident. In addition, an Israeli pathologist will join a group of pathologists from Jordan for an examination as well.

“… Additionally, a proposal has been made to the Palestinians to establish a joint investigation team to review the incident,” the statement said.

None of this has impressed anyone in the Palestinian Authority, where Abbas leaped on the chance to make political points in the street by calling Abu Ein’s death an “intolerable barbaric act.

Palestinian President Mahmoud “Abu Mazen” Abbas said in an interview to the Egyptian paper “Achbar Alyom” last month that 6 million Palestinian refugees, himself included, are waiting to go their homes they were kicked out of [in Israel].”

Abu-Mazen, besides admitting he plans to overrun Israel with 6 million Arabs, said he will “never recognize Israel as a Jewish state – as that would shut the door to all the Palestinian refugees.”

The interview can be read on the MEMRI site.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman said that the terrorist attack in a synagogue during prayers Tuesday morning “amply demonstrates the baseness of the murderers, and that the responsibility rests entirely with the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas.“

The Foreign Minister added, “Abbas has deliberately turned the conflict into a religious conflict between Jews and Muslims and the systematic incitement he leads against Jews, including his statement that impure Jews may not enter the Temple Mount, provides the guidance for such heinous attacks.

“The international community should condemn Abbas’ anti-Semitic statements which leads to terrible massacres as happened this morning in the synagogue in Jerusalem and make it clear that those who act in this way cannot be seen as a legitimate political figure.”

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday that Israel will protect its citizens from Arab violence.

Last week terrorists carried out 240 attacks against Israelis, killing two and wounding at least 23 others.

Speaking at the start of the weekly government cabinet meeting, Netanyahu called on “Abu Mazen” – the terrorist name used by Abbas among Arabic speakers – to “stop this propaganda immediately.”

The prime minister was referring to Islamic extremist propaganda, and a call by official PA media last week for a “day of rage” in Jerusalem. Both came less than 24 hours after Netanyahu met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Amman. The three leaders had called for a “calming of the situation” in statements following the meeting.

“We will use all legal means at our disposal, including new legislation, to maintain the security of our citizens and residents,” Netanyahu said on Sunday.

“Israel is also being challenged by lies being disseminate to the effecct that we intend to change the status quo on the Temple Mount – this is a gross lie,” he said. “We are being challenged by the unwillingness to recognize the right of the Jewish People to a state of its own.

“Israel is a Jewish and democratic state,” Netanyahu continued. “Democracy here finds expression in the right of every person to vote in secret elections. It finds expression in Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, which promises full individual rights in a manner that is unprecedented anywhere in the very large region around us.

“The Jewish aspect of the state finds expression in its being the one and only national state of the Jewish People, with a flag, national anthem and the right of the Jewish People to come here. The balance between these two facets in necessary, both to balance our judicial system, which certainly recognizes the democratic aspect, and now needs to also recognize the aspect of our being the national state of the Jewish People.”

Netanyahu went on to say that the government will move ahead with the nationality law designed to create this balance. “It will yet undergo many changes and discussions, but we will make it clear that the State of Israel is the national state of the Jewish People, while providing for equal rights – and ensuring equal rights – for all its citizens,” he said.