FOR almost 24 hours, Al Jazeera, the Arab world's most popular news channel, has lead its bulletins with reports of outlandish concessions made by Palestinian officials during negotiations with Israel since 1999. So grave were the allegations contained in some 1,600 documents and 50 maps leaked to the channel, claimed commentators Al Jazeera drafted into its studios, they would end the last kicks from the dying horse of the peace process, and unseat the Palestinian leadership.

If anything the first batch of leaked papers appears to do the opposite. It shows the Palestinians defending their corner rather well, and largely upholding previous positions. On Jerusalem, Ahmed Qurie and Saeb Erekat, the two main Palestinian negotiators during the Annapolis process begun in 2007, stuck to the parameters established by then-president Bill Clinton a decade ago of an ethnic partition of the city: the Jewish bits would remain Jewish, and the Palestinian bits Palestinian. Both men withstood Israeli pressure to extend the formula to two large Jewish settlements, Maale Adumim and Har Homa, to the east and south of the city.

On Jerusalem's Old City, the epicentre of the conflict, Palestinians also restated positions established under Yasser Arafat, the former Palestinian president. They insist that the only part of the Haram al-Sharif, the compound containing Islam's third holiest mosque and the site on which some Jews want to build a third temple, that they would consider ceding to Israel would be the Wailing Wall on which the temple stood. In indirect talks after Binyamin Netanyahu became Israel's prime minister, Mr Erekat went a bit further—in "a private" capacity—by advertising his readiness to consider "creative" alternatives, and implied his readiness to consider the supervision of an international committee, a much-floated idea. As for the rest of the Old City, the Palestinian team insisted on keeping all but the Jewish and some of the Armenian quarters.

How Al Jazeera's spin will play out amongst the Palestinian public is unclear. Allies of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, predictably denounced the messenger, sidestepping his message, by attacking Al Jazeera's offices. A senior Palestinian official, Yasser Abd Rabbo, blasted the Emir of Qatar, the small Gulf state that owns Al Jazeera, of conducting a campaign against Mr Abbas in order to project his regional influence. Ramallah's rumour-mill blamed Mohammed Dahlan, a former security chief, against whom Mr Abbas recently launched an investigation on suspicion of plotting to overthrow him. Only last week, Mr Dahlan's aides threatened to release embarrassing documents if what he termed the "witch-hunt" by Mr Abbas persisted.

On current evidence, the leaks are just as awkward for Israel. They contradict the official Israeli narrative that the Palestinians rejected generous Israeli offers, and portray Palestinians as initiating ideas, only to be stymied by Israeli stonewalling. They give credence to Palestinian claims that Mr Netanyahu made no counter-proposals. Had a more responsive Israeli prime minister been in charge, or had the Obama administration picked up from where his predecessors left off, rather than frittering away two years on an elusive settlement freeze, a two-state agreement might yet have looked imminent.

To date only the usual suspects, led by Hamas, Fatah's Islamist rivals who rule Gaza, have accused Mr Abbas and his aides of selling out. Inside the West Bank, there have been no reported demonstrations or calls for Mr Abbas to go. Whether the calm continues, though, could depend on Al Jazeera's next instalments. The channel is broadcasting trailers for further revelations on Palestinian security coordination with Israel, Mr Abbas's position on the Gaza blockade and the fighting in Gaza in the winter of 2008-2009. Tonight's promised exposé is on refugees. Should they show Mr Abbas and his aides compromising the Palestinian claim to the right of return for refugees uprooted in 1948 and 1967, his authority—particularly in the teeming refugee camps of Lebanon and Gaza—might be more seriously tested. Despite Al Jazeera's best efforts, though, predictions of a Tunisia-style toppling appear premature.