Israeli Settlement Construction
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010israeli settlement construction
Israel rules out immediate peace deal with Palestine
A TOP Israeli official has ruled out immediate final accord with the Palestinians any time soon, casting a pall over the United States (U.S.) Middle East envoy’s latest effort to get peace talks moving again.
Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, the Associated Press (AP) reported yesterday, suggested that the two sides come up with a long-term interim arrangement that would ensure prosperity, security and stability.
He recommended leaving the toughest issues – such as the status of disputed Jerusalem and a solution for Palestinian refugees who lost homes amid war – “to a much later stage.”
He did not elaborate or give a timeline.
“Anyone who says that within the next few years an agreement can be reached ending the conflict … simply doesn’t understand the situation and spreads delusions, ultimately leading to disappointments and an all-out confrontation here,” Lieberman told Israel Radio.
Other conflicts have been defused with the sides making a “dramatic decision” to renounce violence and enter into a period of calm that would allow an accord, Lieberman said.
“People have learned to live with it,” he said.
Lieberman’s suggestion will not necessarily translate into peace policy, which is set by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu’s office wouldn’t comment when asked if Lieberman’s comments reflected his opinion or government policy. But other senior Netanyahu confidants share similar skeptical views on peace-making.
Lieberman’s approach runs counter to U.S. efforts to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal quickly. The Palestinians have said they will not agree to an interim peace deal that would put off a resolution of the conflict indefinitely.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will tell visiting U.S. envoy George Mitchell that he will not resume peace talks until Israel freezes settlement expansion and the two sides set out a clear agenda for resumed peace-making, according to Jibril Rajoub, a key member of Abbas’ Fatah Party.
Abbas could be hard-pressed to back down because of the furor he has unleashed at home by suspending efforts to bring Israel before a war crimes tribunal in connection with its winter war in the Gaza Strip.
Nearly 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the war, including hundreds of civilians. Israel, which lost 13 civilians and soldiers in the war, launched the campaign to end years of Hamas rocket fire on Israeli border towns.
U.S. President Barack Obama brought Abbas and Netanyahu together in New York last month in an effort to jump-start talks that broke down months ago. So far, no breakthroughs have been announced.
Since the New York summit, Mitchell met with representatives of Netanyahu and Abbas in the United States, before returning to the region this week. He had meetings with Lieberman and Israeli Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, lined up yesterday and with Netanyahu and Abbas today.
While Lieberman was speaking pessimistically about efforts to reach a deal, Mitchell was doggedly pressing ahead.
“We’re going to continue with our efforts to achieve an early re-launch of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, because we believe that’s an essential step toward achieving the comprehensive (Middle East) peace to which I earlier referred,” he told reporters as he entered a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres.
In an interview with the Israeli Haaretz daily, Jordan’s King Abdullah II also warned of further stagnation in peace talks, saying that because of the impasse, “we are sliding back into the darkness.”
Mitchell has been labouring for months to pressure Israel to curb settlement construction. Israel has agreed to limited and temporary restrictions on building in the West Bank, but has resisted a total freeze. It has rejected any limitations on construction in east Jerusalem.
The Palestinians want the West Bank and east Jerusalem for part of their future state, along with the Gaza Strip, now ruled by Islamic Hamas militants.
Meanwhile, Romania has unveiled a monument in memory of some 300,000 Jews and Gypsies killed during the Holocaust in the country. The country had denied in the past that the extermination happened.
President Traian Basescu said it was Romania’s duty to “recognise the genocide during World War II” and to honour the victims.
Basescu was joined by Holocaust survivors, both Jewish and Gypsies, and other leaders during the unveiling of the _5 million (US$7.35 million) marble and concrete tomblike monument.
Romania today has only 6,000 Jews. The country’s role in the Holocaust and the deportation of Jews were ignored by the Communists and minimised by subsequent governments after communism collapsed in 1989.
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Did you See Obama’s speech from Cairo? Thoughts?
Will he follow through & force a settlement? He said a few interesting things:
“Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel’s right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine’s”.
“The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements”.
“This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop”.
“Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead, so let there be no doubt: the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own.”
I Loved it!!
However defenetly a bush in sheeps clothing. Palestinians are not “in search for a homeland” Palestinians already have a homeland and they were ethnically cleansed from it. People need to admit this and the sooner the better. However it was a step in the right direction.
LIVE: Middle East Quartet orders to freeze Israel’s settlement construction