Israel-Palestine Analysis: Netanyahu Calls on Ramallah to Avoid UN, Sit Down for Negotiations

Netanyahu's bottom line: due to Israel's security interests, West Jerusalem is not going to accept the demand to extend the freeze of settlements in the West Bank for another two months. If Palestinians want to have a "genuine" peace, then they have to give up all conditions on the final status talks and sit down at the negotiation table.

Meanwhile, Palestinians discussing the approach to the UN are debating whether Ramallah can seek recognition of pre-1967 borders borders and the immediate evacuation of Jewish settlers.

Click to read more ...

Israel-Palestine: Direct Talks in Paris Postponed

A statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office says this Thursday's summit in Paris with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been postponed: "Following consultations, the parties concerned have agreed to decide on another date." 

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said on Saturday, "The continuation by Israel of settlement activity ruins all peace efforts, be they those of President Barack Obama or those of President Nicolas Sarkozy." He added that the Palestinian Authority had "not received an official invitation, giving a date, for such a meeting".

On Friday, Netanyahu approved plans to build 238 new homes in east Jerusalem, provoking anger from the Palestinian Authority and criticism from both the US and France.

On another front, Netanyahu confirmed that talks with Hamas, through a German mediator, for the release of detained US soldier Gilad Shalit have resumed. 

Shalit has been held by Hamas since a cross-border raid in 2006.

Israel-Palestine Analysis: Obama Has Failed --- It's Back to Indirect Talks

On Friday, Arab League ministers endorsed the call of Palestinian Authority leader Mamoud Abbas' call to end direct talks unless Israel agrees to another freeze on West Bank settlements. 

The Arab ministers said they would meet again in a month to study alternatives and decide on next steps, giving the Obama Administration more time to broker a compromise on renewal of the talks. The Arab delegates want to see a clear path forward after the November Congressional elections in the US.

The Palestinian Authority has still not made a commitment, despite Mahmoud Abbas' declaration that he is ready to leave the negotiating table; given the Arab League outcome, the PA may not do so until November. However, the position seems clear. Unless Israel agrees to a two-month extension on the settlement freeze, we are back to indirect talks.

For the moment, the Arab representatives have saved Barack Obama's face. But Washington, rather than just sending out another set of envoys, needs to spend some time in serious consideration of major steps. Abbas told Arab leaders that he may seek US recognition for a Palestinian state if Israel does not offer a response on settlements. Alternatively, according to sources close to the PA leadership, Abbas told U.S. envoy George Mitchell that he will resign if there is no movement.

Click to read more ...

Palestine Interview: Hamas' Khaled Meshaal on the "Resistance Bloc" and the New Middle East (Narwani)

Earlier this month, Sharmine Narwani interviewed Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus for the Huffington Post. In Part 1 of the interview, he addressed the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Hamas' perspective on the direct talks. Here he speaks about broader regional issues, including the emergence of a "Resistance Bloc", the New Middle East, and relations with Iran, the Ground Zero mosque, and, on a more personal note, his relationship with his father:

SN: The "Resistance Bloc" in the Middle East - Syria, Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas - how did it come about?

KM: The forming of this bloc is a natural consequence of events in the region - firstly, the presence of Israel and its atrocities against the region, and then the failure of the negotiation process to achieve something substantial. Even when the Arabs compromised and agreed to the borders of 1967, they did not receive a serious response from Israel. Thus, we have this stalemated situation where Israel has a free hand to do whatever it wants - with the world community turning a blind eye - which leads to the response in the street and to the forming of the bloc you have mentioned.

Click to read more ...

Israel-Syria Analysis: The Importance of Damascus for the Israeli-Palestinian Talks

Considering efforts to bring Syrians and Israelis to the negotiation table, we said on 17 September:

To strengthen Ramallah’s hand at the negotiation table and to give a regional dimension for the Israel-Palestine talks, the Obama Administration is bringing in another strategy: Israeli-Syrian talks. These would serve both as a back-up measure to prevent radicalism and as an implicit pressure on both the Palestinians and Israelis. 

We then asked whether this wass a "waste of time", given both Damascus' ties with Tehran and the US intention to use Syrian-Israeli talks as a tool for success of the Israeli-Palestinian discussions. We left the door open for a regional settlement as long as Damascus can get deal beyond return of the Golan Heights to Syra.

Following US special envoy George Mitchell's visit to Damascus on 16 September, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will see Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem in New York on Monday. "A comprehensive peace has to include the Syria-Israel track. It’s absolutely essential that Syria be part of this process," Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeff Feltman told reporters.

Click to read more ...

Palestine: Life in Hamas's Gaza (Prothero)

If the humiliation of chronic unemployment, or being paid to not work, isn’t enough, with a widespread travel ban on Palestinians except in rare medical cases requiring Israeli help, no one ever gets to leave this tiny patch of sand along the sea. And with meager wages supplemented by humanitarian rations, people aren’t starving. Instead they seem to be losing any sense of hope and increasingly, according to social workers, smugglers and even the police, turning in massive numbers to cheap narcotic tablets smuggled through tunnels from Egypt. A sense of lethargy and hopelessness now pervades almost every aspect of life here.

Click to read more ...

Israel-Palestine: Time to Move Beyond a US-Centred Approach (Freeman)

On 1 September, Charles Freeman --- former State Department and Defense Department official, US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and nominee in 2009 to head the National Intelligence Council --- delivered this speech to the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs....

Click to read more ...