US, Israel, PA fail to reach agreement on settlement freeze - Jerusalem Post

 
Photo by: Associated Press By HERB KEINON 
12/07/2010 23:29 Talkbacks (2) The US-lead diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is going back to the drawing board, with a senior US official announcing Tuesday night that following consultation with the sides it was determined a further settlement moratorium would not provide the basis for a framework agreement.

The official, in a telephone briefing with reporters in Jerusalem, said that "in the days and weeks ahead" the US would engage with the sides, as well as with other countries in the region, about the "core substantive issues."

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The official said that Israeli and Palestinian officials would visit Washington in the coming days for discussions.  He would not say whether or not these would be direct talks. He was careful in not placing responsibility for the current stalemate on any one party

Israel is expected to be represented at the talks by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's envoy Yitzhak Molcho.

The surprise announcement came nearly a month after Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agreed in principle on 90-day settlement moratorium extension in exchange for a package of incentives from Washington.

Since that time the US has held intensive talks with both Israel and the PA about the precise details of the incentives and what would happen during the three months of negotiations during the freeze.  What emerged, according to diplomatic officials, was a gap between what Israel thought could be achieved during this time, and Palestinian expectations.

The Palestinians, according to Israeli sources, wanted the talks to focus on border issues, in the expectation that this issue would be solved within three months.

Israel, however, refused to commit to this timetable, arguing that it would not talk about borders without talking about security agreements, and that it would not agree to ceding land without knowing in advance what security arrangements would be put in place when it withdrew. Among security arrangements Israel is demanding are an Israeli presence on the eastern border of a future Palestinian state, and that the future state be demilitarized. 

According to Israeli sources, the US – after hearing the position of both sides -- came to the conclusion that even if there was a moratorium for the next 90 days, it would not ensure success of the process, and that the entire process could actually explode on the 91st day if an agreement on borders was not reached.

Interested in forestalling that scenario, the US has – according to Israeli sources -- decided to rethink the entire process, look at the process with "fresh eyes," and perhaps come up with a new path forward.

One Israeli official said that construction in the settlements,  re-started after the initial 10-month moratorium expired on September 26, will continue as it has since then. The official said the US position on a settlement moratorium is the same.

 The US has made clear that it would have liked to see a continuation of the settlement freeze that began in November 2009.

The Israeli official said that the breakdown of the talks over the moratorium would not impact on efforts to get the US to supply Israel with a second squadron of 20 F35 fighters.  Under the package of incentives that were reportedly being discussed with the US, Israel was to receive the planes in exchange for an additional settlement freeze.

An Israeli official said, however, that the second squadron was requested independent of the settlement moratorium as a vehicle by which Israel could retain its "qualitative military edge" following a massive $60 billion US arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

The US official said in the phone briefing Tuesday night that the US remained firmly committed to Israel's security and to its retention of a qualitative military edge.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a private meeting Tuesday that the US has a "central role in navigating the diplomatic process as a party accepted by both Israel and the Arabs." Barak said that in the coming days the discussion will continue between Israeli officials and Clinton "with the aim of leading to progress in talks with the Palestinians."function initServerVars() {_headup.clientHost = 'http://newstopics.jpost.com';_headup.termsFromServer = 'Ehud Barak$$Jerusalem';_headup.annotatedTerms = ['City/name/Jerusalem/displaytype/City/dbpediaSubject/Jerusalem/$$1', 'Person/name/Ehud Barak/displaytype/Prime Minister/dbpediaSubject/Ehud_Barak/$$1']_headup.widgetMode = 'snippet';_headup.snippetButtonStyle = 'banner';_headup.blackListedUrl = false;}  Subscribe to our Newsletter to receive news updates directly to your email         Author:   LBCountry:   Canada12/07/2010   23:39
Highly surprising. LOL. Was there ever any doubt?

1. Incentives or disincentives..Author:   jim lCountry:   USA12/07/2010   23:33
nothing can diminish the land value to Israelis. Their economy requires it. Their security requires it. Even if every Israeli got a windfall in cash from this deal and, the Arabs normalized relations with them, their growth and assets would necessitate expansion. The Arabs have no such situation. Their policies and behavior should raise red flags in every direction.

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Opposition Mounts to US Plan for Israeli Settlement Freeze - Voice of America

Robert Berger | Jerusalem 21 November 2010

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairing the weekly meeting of his Cabinet (file photo)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his Cabinet to try to shore up support for a 90-day moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank that is aimed at reviving Middle East peace talks.

Israel ended a 10-month moratorium in late September, prompting the Palestinians to suspend negotiations.

The United States has offered to sell Israel 20 advanced stealth fighter jets and to block anti-Israel resolutions at the United Nations Security Council in exchange for the settlement freeze.

But Mr. Netanyahu is having trouble winning support from his right-wing coalition partners.

Cabinet Minister Eli Yishai said his ultra-Orthodox Shas party opposes the freeze. But he said the party might reconsider, if the U.S. guarantees that it will not demand any further restrictions on settlement construction when the 90-day period expires.

The dovish Labor Party, on the other hand, supports the freeze.

Labor Cabinet Minister Avishai Braverman urged the prime minister to move quickly to get the peace talks back on track.

Outside of the Cabinet meeting, some 2,000 Jewish settlers held a noisy protest against the moratorium.

"We will never allow the Land of Israel to be divided!" said settlement leader Dani Dayan.

Speaking in Cairo, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also rejected the freeze because it only applies to the West Bank.

He said he would not return to peace talks, unless Israel also stops settlement construction in disputed East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as the capital of a future state. Israel says Jerusalem is not a settlement, and it reserves the right to build anywhere in the city.

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Palestinians: Peace talks hinge on Israeli settlement construction - Washington Post

JERUSALEM - The Palestinian leadership said on Saturday that there would be no resumption of peace talks without a halt to Israeli settlement building in the West Bank, backing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in a dispute that has imperiled recently renewed negotiations.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded by appealing to Abbas to continue the negotiations. "The way to achieve an historic peace agreement between our two peoples is to sit around the negotiating table, seriously and continuously, and not to leave it, because that is the place to resolve our disagreements,'' he said in a statement.

Abbas met at his headquarters in Ramallah with members of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the central committee of his Fatah movement ahead of consultations at an Arab League summit in Libya next weekend.

"The leadership affirmed that the resumption of negotiations requires tangible steps that demonstrate their seriousness, first and foremost halting settlement without qualifications or exceptions," said a statement read out by Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior PLO official.

"The Palestinian leadership holds the Israeli government responsible for the suspension of the negotiations and the political process," the statement said, accusing Israel of seeking "to use the negotiations as a cover to pursue this settlement policy."

The U.S.-sponsored talks, renewed in early September, have foundered after a 10-month moratorium on new construction in Israeli settlements expired last Sunday and Netanyahu said it would not be renewed, despite pressure from Washington.

The U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, George J. Mitchell, failed to break the impasse on Friday after two days of shuttling between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders. On Saturday he traveled to Qatar and Egypt to enlist the help of Arab leaders to broker a compromise.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Abbas, said that the Palestinian president would address Arab foreign ministers and leaders at the Arab League meeting, seek their advice "and then we'll come back to the Palestinian leadership in order to take the right decision." The Arab League had sanctioned the direct talks with the Israelis.

"The Palestinian position is clear: There will be no negotiations as long as settlement building continues," Abu Rudeineh said, adding that if the Israelis "are not restraining such activities, how are we going to agree on the final status issues?"

Palestinian officials assert that by expanding settlements, Israel is seizing land the Palestinians want for a future state before its fate is decided in negotiations. Netanyahu has argued that limited building in the settlements during the year allotted to reach an agreement would not affect the final drawing of borders, and that halting settlement construction was never a precondition for previous Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

"For 17 years the Palestinians conducted direct talks with Israeli governments while building went on in Judea and Samaria," Netanyahu said in response to the Palestinian statement, referring to the West Bank by its biblical names. "I hope that now, as well, they will not turn their backs on peace and continue the negotiations in order to reach a framework agreement within a year."

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, said that there was a firm consensus among all factions at the Ramallah meeting that talks could not proceed as long as Israeli settlement building continued.

"How can you have a two-state solution if you are eating up the land of the other state?" Ashrawi said. "The Israelis have to understand once and for all that they just can't continue with this approach. . . .We can't afford it anymore. The two-state solution is disappearing."

Greenberg is a special correspondent.

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