Palestine: No Negotiations Before Halt to Israeli Settlements

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared on Thursday that no proposal ignoring Jerusalem as the capital of Palestinians would be acceptable to Palestinians.

Abbas added that there would be no peace negotiations with Israel as long as the construction in West Bank settlements and East Jerusalem continues:

If Israel says in the meeting that it will not accept the 1967 borders and that it is not prepared to discuss Jerusalem and the refugee situation, what is there to talk about?

If I enter negotiations with them and the building in East Jerusalem continues, Israel will be saying that Jerusalem is theirs. So why would I agree to negotiate while building in East Jerusalem continues?

Abbas concluded that he will accept Israel as a Jewish state only when West Jerusalem accepts the terms of Palestinians.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said, in a separate declaration, that there was no agreement yet to resume talks with Israel. Responding to the latest US proposal for talks at a level below full-scale negotiations between leaders, Fayyad told Reuters:

We heard about low-level, mid-level, high-level (talks). I don't think there is anything yet that has been crystallised in terms of going forward.

However, Fayyad not close the door on talks: "We Palestinians stand to lose the most from a stalled peace process, but we would still like to see the process resumed in a way that would give us confidence that it can actually deliver what it should be able to deliver."

Israel: Defense Minister Barak "Palestine Peace Bigger Issue Than Iran's Bomb"

Speaking at a conference in Tel Aviv, Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday that a continued stalemate in the peace process with the Palestinians poses a greater threat to Israel than an Iranian nuclear bomb. Having called on the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas to sit on the negotiation table, Barak continued to praise Israel's responsibilities and "progress" and stated that an an apartheid political entity as a result of the stalemate will be the biggest threat:

I am proud to be a member of a government that has taken upon itself the responsibility of addressing issues pertaining to the Road Map.

We regard the settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria as part of Israel in relation to any final status agreement.

We have a paramount interest in establishing defined borders between ourselves and the Palestinians, that will set the stage for two states for two peoples.

Gaza: Israel Rejects Another High-Level Visit
Israel: Netanyahu’s “War on Evil”
Palestine: Conflicting Statements from Hamas on Israel’s Right to Exist

It must be understood that if between the Jordan [River] and the [Mediterranean Sea] there is only one political entity called 'Israel', it will by necessity either be not Jewish or not democratic, and we will turn into an apartheid state.

Following his comments on Palestine, Barak targeted the Lebanese government:

We are not looking for a deterioration of the situation in Lebanon, but if there is such an unraveling, our target will not be some Hizbullah terrorist somewhere in southern Lebanon. Our target will be the Lebanese government and its infrastructure, whatever that may include.

Only then did Barak turn to Iran came out of his lips. He called on the international community to put sanctions on Tehran and warned of a future nuclear arms race in the Middle East and beyond:

Iran is only engaging in dialogue in order to buy itself some time. The setting of a brief and clear timetable for imposing of sanctions on Iran is vital, and uranium enrichment on Iranian soil cannot be legitimized, since this will lead to an Iranian military nuclear capability.

A nuclear Iran will lead to an unrestrained arms race and every Third World dictator will know that his country can go nuclear if it tries.

UPDATED Israel-Palestine: George Mitchell's "Fail, Fail, Fail" Middle East Tour?

UPDATE 25 JANUARY: Following a second meeting with Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, US Mideast special envoy George Mitchell met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday morning. Netanyahu said after the discussions that "new and interesting ideas" were raised for the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians. However, he offered no details.

During the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu repeated, "I expressed my hope that these new ideas will allow for the renewal of the (negotiating) process."

The start of US Middle East envoy George Mitchell's trip to the Middle East this week wasn't too bad. He stopped in Lebanon to declare that the country would play a key role in efforts to build lasting and comprehensive peace and stability in the Middle East.

Israel-Palestine: United Nations “Stop the Occupation of East Jerusalem”

For the third time, Mitchell met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus. That brought the standard You're Very Important line as well: "Syria, certainly has an important role to play in all these efforts, as do the US and international community."


Then the Middle East road got bumpy. On Thursday, Mitchell held meetings with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The US envoy put out President Obama's vision of a Palestinian state alongside Israel in peace, "We will pursue (that) until we achieve that objective." In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's statement seemed to be guarding against bad news from the West Bank:

This issue is between Israel and the Palestinians. The US, UK, EU and the Arab League, everybody can work together to create a positive atmosphere, we will continue to do whatever we can, and we urge both parties to return to the negotiations table.

And on Friday afternoon, Mitchell faced that challenge when he finally met with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas was insistent on a full settlement freeze in West Bank and East Jerusalem before re-starting peace talks, and following the meeting, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said:

When we say a settlement freeze that includes Jerusalem, that is not a Palestinian condition. That is rather an Israeli obligation, and the same thing is applicable to our demand to have negotiations resume where we left them in December 2008.

Israel's Netanyahu, hwoever, put the ball in the court of Ramallah and called on the Palestinian Authority to "stop wasting time talking about how to enter the peace process." A statement released by the Prime Minister's office declared:

The Palestinian Authority are the ones that are preventing the re-launch of the peace process with their preconditions that they have never asked before from any previous Israeli government. The Prime Minister calls on the Palestinian Authority to sit at the negotiating table and discuss ways to promote security, peace, and prosperity for the two people.

UPDATED Israel-Palestine: Netanyahu's New Condition: "Israeli Presence in West Bank"

UPDATE 0915 GMT: Varying responses on Thursday to Netanyahu's statement. Chief Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat declared that Netanyahu is working to end the possibility of a two-state solution: "Netanyahu calls for the Palestinians to resume peace talks, he is effectually leaving the Palestinians nothing to negotiate about." Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said his leadership "rejects the presence of any Israeli soldier within the borders of the future Palestinian state".

There was also criticism within Israel. Meir Sheetrit, a member of Parliament of the opposition Kadima Party, said, "Netanyahu was ruining any chance for negotiations and is proving, again and again, that he is not interested in peace. There is no way that the Palestinians would agree to such an offer, and whoever raises it should negotiate with himself."

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not only harshly criticized the Palestinian Authority's "pre-conditions" for re-starting negotiations but set a new condition for a future peace agreement. Netanyahu said that Israel must have a presence in the West Bank to stop rockets from being imported even after an accord is signed.


Referring to the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon, Netanyahu said: "We are surrounded by an ever-growing arsenal of rockets placed in the Iranian-supported enclaves to the north and to the south" and added, "In the case of a future settlement with the Palestinians, this will require an Israeli presence on the eastern side of a prospective Palestinian state."

Netanyahu was critical of the authority of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. Netanyahu said that "Palestinians are climbing up a tree", as Israelis are calling them to the negotiation tent, by "piling [on] pre-conditions" such as "the refugee problem, security concerns or the Jewish state matter."

Israel-Palestine: An Economic Platform for the Peace Process?
Israel-Palestine: US Envoy Mitchell Asking for Temporary Halt to Settlements

Israel-Palestine: US Envoy Mitchell Asking for Temporary Halt to Settlements

U.S. Mideast special envoy George Mitchell, coming to the region on Wednesday for four days, is reportedly raising the Palestinian Authority's proposal to re-start negotiations . This proposal, modifying Mahmoud Abbas's previous demand for a total halt to construction of Israeli settlement beyond 1967 borders, asks the Israeli side for a freeze in the West Bank and also in the East Jerusalem for three to six months.

Israel-Palestine: An Economic Platform for the Peace Process?

However, senior Israeli officials say Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will not agree to this demand. "This is not going to happen; it goes against everything Netanyahu says and believes in," one source in the Prime Minister's Office said. This follows Sunday's statement by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that Israel had emptied out its "arsenal of gestures" and was now waiting for concessions from the Palestinians.