Mahmoud Abbas: "Israel Does Not Want Peace but We Do"

Israel-Palestine Video: Obama & Peres on the Path to Peace

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On Sunday, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas met with his supporters, as they chanted "Mahmoud Abbas, don't step down! You are the foundation", in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. He said:

These are the conditions of the Road Map that urges Israel to halt settlements, dismantling all of the settlements that are built on lands of the West Bank in order to establish a Palestinian state.

It appears they [Israelis] do not want peace, and they don't want to stop settlement, and they don't want the vision of two-states, so I don't know what they want.

We must remain believers in peace.

Israel-Palestine Video: Obama & Peres on the Path to Peace

Palestine Video: 20 Years Later, Another Wall (Partially) Comes Down

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On the 14th anniversary of the murder of Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin, President Barack Obama's video message was shown to Israelis gathered at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square.He underlined Washington's strong ties with Israel while stressing the importance of peace between Israelis and Palestinians:

America's bond with our Israeli allies is unbreakable and U.S. support for Israel's defense will never be undermined.

To all who seek peace I say tonight, you will always have a partner in the United States of America and in my administration. That's why we've been working aggressively for our clear goal, two states living side by side in peace and security.

Israelis will not find true security while the Palestinians are gripped by hopelessness and despair.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnt8qx8XoIM[/youtube]

Then Israeli President Shimon Peres addressed the crowd:

You, here tonight, don't leave any stone unturned so that next year we will be able to reconvene here, on the 15th anniversary of the murder, and say 'we did it, we realized our dream and Yitzhak's last will and testament.

It is better to have imperfect peace, than a perfect war with no end.

And the path to that imperfect peace? Peres called on Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas to stay in office:

We both signed the Oslo accords, and I turn to you as a colleague and ask that you don't let go.

I know that you toiled for the sake of your people for 50 years. Toil that was accompanied by many disappointments and frustrations. But knowing my people and Israel's government I can tell you that Israel wants true peace, not make-believe. A close peace, not peace from a distance. Therefore, it stands to reason that your 51st year will bring independence to the Palestinian people and peace to the State of Israel. The next year could be a turning point.

Palestine Video & Analysis: Reactions to the Election Bluff of Mahmoud Abbas

Israel-Palestine: UN General Assembly Endorses Goldstone Report on Gaza

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On Thursday, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas said,"I have told our brethren in the Palestine Liberation Organization...that I have no desire to run in the forthcoming election" on 24 January.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGxXyzu2T5o[/youtube]

The head of the PLO Executive Committee, Yasser Abed Rabbo, quickly announced that the committee had rejected Abbas' announcement. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri jumped in to allege Abbas was bluffing, urging his Western friends to put pressure on Israel. Zuhri suggested an alternative course, "We advise him to...face the Palestinian people and tell them frankly that the path of negotiations has failed. Halt negotiations with the occupation and take practical steps toward reconciliation."

Israel and the US are calling on Abbas to remain in the election. Israeli president Shimon Peres told Abbas in a phone call, "If you leave the Palestinians would lose their chance for an independent state. The situation in the region would deteriorate. Stay, for the Palestinian people's sake."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, "Of the existing alternatives, if we want an agreement with the Palestinians then Abbas is the best partner." Clinton subsequently asked Arab foreign ministers and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to press Abbas for a change of decision.

Israel-Palestine: Clinton's Cairo Visit Pushes Talks Into the Distance

Video & Transcript: Clinton Press Conference in Egypt (4 November)

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On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Ali Aboul Gheit spoke to the public after a meeting they had with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

A day earlier, Egyptian Foreign Minister was asking for guarantees for Palestinians and was warning all sides "not to waste time", even as Clinton was playing up "unprecedented concessions" by Israel on settlements. At the conference, this translated into an amiable exchange of Gheit's satisfaction with Washington's "unchanged" position and Clinton's repetition of her rhetoric "calling both sides on the negotiation table."

On settlements, Clinton said:

I want to start by saying our policy on settlements has not changed. And I want to say it again, our policy on settlement activity has not changed. We do not accept the legitimacy of settlement activity.

Well, I can repeat to you what President Obama said in his speech at the United Nations and what he said here in Cairo – that the United States believes that we need a state that is based on the territory that has been occupied since 1967.

That seems a consistent position, since it is impossible to talk about a Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders without the prospect of halting settlements in the West Bank. The difficulty remains, however, that Washington has put forward no possibility of pressure on the Israeli side to bring a settlement freeze and thus a move towards the negotiation table.

That difficulty may have been complicated by Clinton's description of the Goldstone Report on Gaza as an "impediment": "We’re not going to let anything deter us or prevent us from working as hard as we possibly can, going forward." Thus, far from showing how Washington could press Israel to recognise the international position, Clinton effectively set up Goldstone as another pretext for Israeli refusal or delay on negotiations: Tel Aviv can simply argue that there will be no talks without a repudiation of the report.

Clinton, offsetting these difficulties, reiterated her "unprecedented concessions" statement from Jerusalem, "What we have received from the Israelis to halt all new settlement activity –-- and I’ll repeat that again, too –-- to halt all new settlement activities and to end the expropriation of land, and to issue no permits or approvals, is unprecedented."

Someone might want to update Madame Secretary that the Netanyahu Government has already approved additional 3,000 housing units and has put an exception of "natural growth" problems to justify further construction.

So where is "unprecedented" in this picture? And where is the stimulus for both sides to come to the oft-upheld negotiation table? If anything, the prospect for talks appears to have receded. After the conference, the chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat declared that Palestinians may have to abandon the goal of creating an independent state, "It may be time for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to tell his people the truth, that with the continuation of settlement activities, the two-state solution is no longer an option."

Israel-Palestine: Clinton Praises Everyone, but No Progress on Talks

Israel-Palestine: Criticism Mounts over Clinton Trip
Video & Transcript: Clinton-Netanyahu Press Briefing (1 November)

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On Monday, Palestinian officials reiterated their position that there will be no progress in talks unless there is a freeze in Israeli settlements. The declaration came even as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Arab foreign ministers, praising both sides in an effort to convince Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas to return to the negotiation table.

After a meeting between Abbas and US special envoy George Mitchell in Amman, the chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said, "The President made it clear during the meeting that peace cannot be achieved with the continuation of the settlement activity." Responding to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's accusations of Palestinian "preconditions", he asserted: "We do not put conditions for resuming negotiations, but we want the talks resumed on the basis of the provisions of the road map, which stipulates the cessation of all forms of settlement activity in the Palestinian territories." Erekat added that Mitchell emphasized there was no change in the US attitude, which rejects the Israeli expansion of settlements.

Later, answering Arab foreign ministers' criticisms that Washington was "too soft" on Israel, Clinton said:

The Israelis have responded to the call of the U.S., the Palestinians and the Arab world to stop settlement activity by expressing a willingness to restrain settlement activity.

This offer [Israel's offer to restraint settlement activities] falls far short of what our preference would be, but if it is acted upon it will be an unprecedented restriction on settlements and would have a significant and meaningful effect on restraining their growth.

When either party takes any step that looks like it moves us in the right direction, even if it is not what I would like or I would prefer, I am going to positively reinforce that.