Israel and Mitchell-Netanyahu: No Agreement Yet "Good"

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The four-hour meeting between President Obama's envoy George Mitchell and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ended. Predictably, there has been no agreement on the settlement issue. However, the joint statement put out by both sides characterized the meeting as “good” and added: “Both sides [Israelis and Palestinians] need to take practical steps towards furthering the peace."

After Monday’s meeting between British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Netanyahu, in which the latter said the settlement issue could be resolved through negotiations but the Palestinian refuse to recognise Israel as a Jewish state is a major obstacle, today’s “good” meeting is a more hopeful sign. It was agreed that representatives from Netanyahu’s office will go to the U.S. for further discussions with Mitchell’s staff.

The Cable blog adds:

Several Washington Middle East hands believe the parties are close to an agreement on resuming Middle East peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, Israel and Syria, and on resuming normal relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors in the fall. The Obama administration is expected to announce its peace plan parameters and a rough timeline for proceeding around the time of the United Nations General Assembly opening session in New York later next month.

Netanyahu is now on his way to Germany, with the situation of the Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, held in Gaza, and the Iranian issue likely to be high on the agenda of talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

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UPDATE 1730 GMT: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a press conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has said today that Israel and the United States are nearing a compromise that would allow for the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians and as well as "normal life" for Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

However, Netanyahu held firm on his stance that Israel will not limit Jewish construction in East Jerusalem. "The settlers need kindergartens and homes for their families," adding that this does not mean that this would necessitate expropriating more land in the West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in London, scheduled to meet his British counterpart Gordon Brown on Tuesday and President Obama's envoy George Mitchell on Wednesday before seeing German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday.

In Netanyahu’s meetings with Brown and Merkel, the top issue is expected to be Tel Aviv’s demands on the European Union to strengthen sanctions against Tehran. On Sunday, before Netanyahu left Israel, he phoned French President Nicholas Sarkozy with that message.

Undoubtedly, Netanyahu’s most challenging discussion will be held with Mitchell, notably on the current situation with regards to the settlement freeze in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The Netanyahu Government has accepted a maximum six-month freeze in the West Bank, but the Obama Administration is insisting on a freeze for a year both in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem Post reports that a senior Israeli official said, before Netanyahu’s flight to London, that Israel would not accept any limitations on its sovereignty in “the capital". Netanyahu would insist on “the continuation of normal life in the settlements”, which has already replaced the rhetoric of “the natural growth in the settlements” used by Israeli officials.

It is still a mystery whether Tel Aviv will be willing to give more concessions on the timetable but, even if it does, Netanyahu has already established the ground of resistance in case of a demand to divide Jerusalem into two section as a precondition for a two-state solution. Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday that "the discussions with Mitchell were just the beginning of a series of talks and exchanges that had been going on intensively recently, and in good spirits". He continued: “There is a wish to hold direct talks between us and the Palestinians, even though this depends on the understandings with the Americans and the Palestinians."

The US State Department said on Monday that Mitchell was getting closer to winning agreement from the Israelis and Palestinians to resume peace talks, but Ha'aretz reports, from a political source in Jerusalem, that a compromise of 9-12 months on construction in the West Bank would not include East Jerusalem or most of the 2,500 housing units whose construction had already commenced. On Sunday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told reporters:

In the 16 years since the Oslo Accords, we haven't managed to bring peace to the region, and I'm willing to bet that there won't be peace in another 16 years, either. Certainly not on the basis of the two-state solution… The establishment of a Palestinian state within two years is an unrealistic goal… There are some who believe this is possible, and I do not want to interfere. I am ready to grant time so that there will be another effort to reach a Palestinian state, but I will not take on tasks that I do not believe in.

So, as Netanyahu prepares for his meeting tomorrow with Mitchell, there is the immediate question of whether Israel will offer a settlement freeze in the West Bank for 12 months to avoid the same demand on construction in East Jerusalem. But that in turn opens up the bigger question: is there any Israeli intent to pursue a resolution of Jerusalem's status as part of a two-state solution?