Israel-Palestine: Israel's Security Summit, Abbas and Netanyahu Clash on Core Issues

Israel's Security Summit: On Monday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with members of the Israel Security Council led by Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Uzi Dayan. In the meeting, four strategic measures were discussed in detail: "Maintaining a solid Jewish majority in the State of Israel, preventing the creation of a hostile Palestinian entity that could threaten Israel from Judea and Samaria as is the case today in Gaza, the Iranian threat, and the de-legitimization assault against Israel."

The Israel Security Council also stated that there must be clear red lines during negotiations with Palestinians, especially in maintaining the Jordan Valley as Israel's eastern security border. The need to to strengthen Jewish-democratic identity in Israel and to prevent Iran from arming itself with nuclear weapons were also conveyed to PM Netanyahu.

Video and Transcript: Obama’s New Year Message to Israelis
Israel-Palestine Analysis: Can Ramallah’s “Security” Card Advance the Talks? (Yenidunya)

No Israeli Presence in the West Bank: Talking to al-Ayyam on Monday morning,  Palestine Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas said: “We clarified that [the Palestinian Authority] would not agree to continued Israeli presence, military or civil, within a future Palestinian state.”

Abbas-Netanyahu Challenge on Core Issues: According to Al Quds, Abbas has said that if he is pressured on key issues at the direct talks, such as borders and refugees, he "will take his bags and leave". Abbas stated that the issue of the pre-1967 borders are as important as Israel's emphasis on its security.

Abbas said late Monday that he has asked the U.S. "to intervene in the settlement issue", with the freeze ending in less than three weeks. It appears that Israeli "gestures" instead of an extension of the freeze did not work in Ramallah. Abbas does not see these gestures --- such as transferring an important piece of land from Israeli to Palestinian control, releasing hundreds of prisoners, and removing dozens of checkpoints --- as a substitute of a concession on settlements.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat denied on Monday that there will be a meeting between President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem in mid-September. "What has been agreed upon is a meeting between President Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in Sharm el-Sheikh on Sept. 14 only," Erekat told Xinhua.

On Tuesday, in a Rosh Hashanah greeting, Netanyahu told the nation that there was no guarantee that negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians would succeed, but he vowed to aim for a peace agreement by the end of the year. (Interpretation: Our red lines are crystal-clear, sothere can be no improvement if Palestinians do not come to terms.) He said:

We are trying in good faith, but not naivety, to reach a peace agreement. Any arrangement between us and the Palestinians will be based on two criteria: security and recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.

Security, because no peace will last without a strong anchor of actual security on the ground, not on paper and not as a hazy international commitment. The second thing is the recognition that Israel is the national state of the Jewish people.

If we are asked to recognize a Palestinian state, it is both natural and appropriate that the Palestinians recognize the state of the Israeli people as a Jewish state.

Israel-Palestine Analysis: Can Ramallah's "Security" Card Advance the Talks? (Yenidunya)

After the killing of four Israeli settlers and wounded of two others in the West Bank on 31 August, the Palestinian Authority arrested dozens of Hamas members. However, Hamas' war on the peace process has continued through an attempt to legitimise the targeting of the settlers.

On Friday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah praised Hamas for the West Bank attacks and said, "This is the way to free Jerusalem and Palestine." Supported byIran's statements calling the participants of peace talks in Washington "traitors", Hamas sharpened its tone.

Israeli settlers in the West Bank are legitimate targets since they are an army in every sense of the word, senior Hamas official Ezzat al-Rashk said on Saturday:

They are now a real army in every sense of the word, with more than 500,000 automatic weapons at their disposal, on top of the basic protection by the [Israel Defense Forces].

Israel-Palestine Talks: So What is a Settlement? (Stone)
Israel-Palestine: An Interview with Hamas Leader Khaled Meshaal (Narwani)

In response, Ramallah arrested dozens of Hamas members and vowed to hit them with the iron fist.

Hamas' action, rather than undermining the talks, may have strengthened the Palestinian Authority's hand in the negotiations. Officials from Ramallah are sending message to Washington that extra pressure on the PA damage the chance for peace and security of the region.

On Sunday, the chief PA negotiator Saeb Eerekat said that if his organisation and Israel "sign[ed] an endgame agreement on all core issues, I believe we will bring Gaza back." Then Erekat added that he feared the "Palestinian Authority will dissolve if we fail to reach an endgame agreement".

Talking to Palestinian newspaper al-Ayyam on Monday morning, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas took the message further by linking it to a core demand: "We clarified that [the Palestinian Authority] would not agree to continued Israeli presence, military or civil, within a future Palestinian state." Message? want peace and security, it is that Palestinian state, existing peacefully alongside Israel, that should have a monopoly over the use of power in its terrority.

Ramallah had already warned that they would leave the negotiation table if the 10-month-freeze in the settlements did not continue. Its latest deployment of peace and security will be put to two Israeli groups: a relatively "practical" camp in giving concessions but conceding on security and a relatively "conservative" one that moving strategically to capitalise on the failure of the talks. The former one is the alliance of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak alliance and the latter is the team of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Shas leader Eli Yishai.

Lieberman has already said that the direct talks with the Palestinians would not bring a general peace agreement. He is backed by Yishai, who recently said that the Israeli forces lost against 2000 Hezbollah men "because Israel's people had distanced themselves from God". On the other side, Netanyahu says that creative thinking can remove obstacles on the way to Mideast peace and Ehud Barak fills in the details by saying that Israel will neither cancel the 10-month curb on settlement expansion nor extend it before getting a concession from the other side on borders.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials are playing another card on the negotiation table. Israel's ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, said on Friday that West Jerusalem is offering the Palestinians gestures, in place of extending the settlement moratorium, to keep them in peace negotiations. Indeed, the move seizes upon the PA's "security" theme, with the gestures including the removal of checkpoints and transfer of greater control of the West Bank to Ramallah.

Yet all of this may be overshadowed by the news from diplomatic circles who said on Sunday that Israel is considering calling off the meeting with the PA's negotiating team, scheduled to be held in Jericho on Monday, after news of the discussion was leaked to the press. [Editor's Note: The meeting has been cancelled.]

So, before the scheduled high-level meeting in Sharm-e-Sheikh on 14 September, the question is put forth: can the Palestinian Authority's own "security" card, ironically brought into play by its rival Hamas, offer a way forward in talks or will the sticking points over Israeli settlements --- the moratorium on West Bank expansion ends in less than three weeks --- ensure that there is no movement?

Israel-Palestine Talks: Will Confidence-Building Measures for Ramallah Work? (Yenidunya)

Today brings the first meetings in Washington between US officials and Israeli and Palestinian delegations, with direct talks between the Israeli Government and Palestinian Authority starting Thursday. The preliminary talk has begun, however.

Having met with Jordan’s King Abdullah on Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak held a secret meeting with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas in Amman.

Jordan's King Abdullah is a key broker as the head of an Arab country which is at peace with Israel. He told Barak to be an honest partner, giving answers on central issues at the start of talks.

Gaza Latest: UN’s Flotilla Interviews Start, More Aid Ships?, Worry Over Hamas
Israel-Palestine: Were 4 Settlers Killed to Sabotage Talks? (Yenidunya)

But then the question: why Barak's secret discussion with Abbas? The Jerusalem Post says that two leaders discussed the further easing of security conditions for Palestinians in the West Bank as a confidence-building measure.

Haaretz has reported recently, from sources “close to the Obama Administration”, that Washington will urge Palestinians to soften their stance on an Israeli proposal for continued construction in large settlement blocs but not in isolated settlements. In response to this “concession”, land from Area C, which is both governed and controlled by Israel, will be transferred to Area B which is controlled by Israelis but governed by Palestinians.

Haaretz also reported in July that Netanyahu was thinking of some confidence-building measures such as enabling the Palestinian police to broaden its activities beyond Area A, which is under the Palestinian Authority's security control, setting up six new police stations in Area B, where the PA is currently responsible only for civilian affairs, and possibly having some authority over civilian matters in Area C.

However, Fatah spokesman Ahmed Assaf dismissed on Monday demands that the Palestinians accept Israel as a Jewish state. He said such a demand was in violation of international law and threatened to sabotage the peace talks.

So to Washington: will the “confidence-building measures” be discussed to get some Palestinian movement on the issue of Israeli settlements? Or is this an unrealistic plan given larger demands that may be on the table?

Israel-Palestine: Were 4 Settlers Killed to Sabotage Talks? (Yenidunya)

On Tuesday night, four Israelis were killed in a car by at least one gunman in the West Bank. The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, claimed responsibility for the attack. Osama Hamdan, a Hamas spokesman, told Al Jazeera that Hamas had not planned any attacks intended to sabotage the Israeli-Palestinian Authroity talks. However, Hamdan said he was speaking for the political wing of Hamas and the Qassam Brigades could have planned the attack independently.

Abu Mujahad, spokesman of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), told YNet that the West Bank attack was a message to the Palestinian negotiating team over the resumption of direct talks with Israel. "They should not have gone for this move without the support of the Palestinian people," he said. "Our people still abide by resistance and do no believe in the fictitious talks scheduled to commence tomorrow."

Israel-Palestine Talks: Will Confidence-Building Measures for Ramallah Work? (Yenidunya)
Israel: A Rabbi’s War on Palestinians (Yenidunya)

Then another Hamas response came. "Hamas praises the attack and regards it as a natural response to the crimes of the occupation," said Sami Abu-Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak responded:

This is very grave incident. The IDF and Israeli security forces will do everything they can to capture the murderers. Israel will not allow terrorists to lift their heads and will exact a price from the murderers and those who sent them.

US State Department Spokesman Philip J. Crowley called the attack as a “tragedy” and continued:

Any time one human being takes out a weapon and fires and kills other human beings it’s a tragedy.

We are cognizant that there could be external events that can have an impact on the environment. We also are cognizant that there may well be actors in the region who are deliberately making these kinds of attacks in order to sabotage the process. We are very aware that as we go forward in this process, not everyone sees this in the same way, and there are those who will do whatever they can to disrupt or derail the process.

The most significant, if cynical, question is: which side can get the most benefit from this tragedy during direct talks? Will this attack boost Israel through attention to its security concerns? Will it make Ramallah a more valuable partner for peace, given the shadow  of Hamas and other opposition groups, especially at a time when polls show that more than half of Palestinians in the West Bank do not believe that there will be a peace agreement in Washington?