Israeli settlement freeze ends
catefrances
Posts: 29,003
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68O1RJ20100926
By Ari Rabinovitch
JERUSALEM | Sun Sep 26, 2010 6:58pm EDT
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel allowed its 10-month settlement construction freeze in the West Bank to expire on Monday, defying a U.S. call to extend the moratorium which Palestinians have said is necessary to keep peace talks going.
Minutes after the moratorium expired, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to continue "expedited, honest talks" to achieve an "historic" peace deal within a year.
"Israel is ready to pursue continuous contacts in the coming days to find a way to continue peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority," he said in a statement.
The Israeli leader has resisted calls from President Barack Obama to extend the construction freeze but the United States said late Sunday it was trying to ensure both sides continued to negotiate despite Israel's decision.
"We keep pushing for the talks to continue," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley in a brief statement, adding that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had twice spoken to Netanyahu Sunday.
Netanyahu, whose governing coalition is dominated by pro-settler parties, earlier urged Jewish settlers to show restraint before the freeze ended at midnight.
His plea to settlers appeared aimed at persuading Abbas not to carry out his threat to quit negotiations launched in Washington on September 2, unless the freeze were extended.
Palestinians say settlements will make it impossible for them to create a viable state and the issue is one of the core problems standing in the way of any peace deal.
More than 430,000 Jews live in well over 100 settlements established across the West Bank and East Jerusalem on land that Israel captured from Jordan in a 1967 Middle East war. The World Court deems settlements illegal but Israel disputes this.
Netanyahu has held out the prospect of limiting the scope of renewed construction, a message he seemed to underscore in an official statement Sunday.
"The prime minister calls on the residents in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and the political parties to show restraint and responsibility today and in the future exactly as they showed restraint and responsibility throughout the months of the freeze," it said.
But settler leaders vowed to begin erecting next week some 2,000 homes in the West Bank, where Netanyahu in November imposed under U.S. pressure a partial moratorium on housing starts.
ABBAS STANCE
In his statement Netanyahu said he had been in touch with Clinton and the leaders of Jordan and Egypt in the past few days in search of a way to ensure the nascent negotiations continued.
He urged Abbas "to continue the sincere, good talks we have just begun with the aim of reaching an historic peace agreement between our two peoples," a statement released by Netanyahu's office said.
"I hope that President Abbas will remain in the talks and continue with me on the path to peace that we began three weeks ago," Netanyahu said, adding: "my intentions to achieve peace are serious and honest."
Netanyahu said he had gone a "significant, long way to help the Palestinians" by easing restrictions on travel in the occupied West Bank and alluding to the recent easing of a land blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
"For the sake of the futures of both our peoples, let's focus on what is really important, let's continue expedited, honest talks in order to bring an historic framework agreement of peace within a year," he added, reiterating a goal set out by the U.S. when it sponsored a launch of peace talks this month.
Abbas has appeared to indicate the talks would not be suspended immediately upon the moratorium's expiration.
Asked in an interview with the pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat, whether he would declare an end to the negotiations if the freeze did not continue, Abbas said: "No, we will go back to the Palestinian institutions, to the Arab follow-up committee."
He was referring in the interview, conducted Friday and published Sunday, to an Arab League forum that gave him the go-ahead to pursue direct peace talks with Israel.
Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah said the Palestinian leader had requested a meeting of the follow-up committee in Cairo and it would likely convene "within days."
By Ari Rabinovitch
JERUSALEM | Sun Sep 26, 2010 6:58pm EDT
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel allowed its 10-month settlement construction freeze in the West Bank to expire on Monday, defying a U.S. call to extend the moratorium which Palestinians have said is necessary to keep peace talks going.
Minutes after the moratorium expired, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to continue "expedited, honest talks" to achieve an "historic" peace deal within a year.
"Israel is ready to pursue continuous contacts in the coming days to find a way to continue peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority," he said in a statement.
The Israeli leader has resisted calls from President Barack Obama to extend the construction freeze but the United States said late Sunday it was trying to ensure both sides continued to negotiate despite Israel's decision.
"We keep pushing for the talks to continue," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley in a brief statement, adding that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had twice spoken to Netanyahu Sunday.
Netanyahu, whose governing coalition is dominated by pro-settler parties, earlier urged Jewish settlers to show restraint before the freeze ended at midnight.
His plea to settlers appeared aimed at persuading Abbas not to carry out his threat to quit negotiations launched in Washington on September 2, unless the freeze were extended.
Palestinians say settlements will make it impossible for them to create a viable state and the issue is one of the core problems standing in the way of any peace deal.
More than 430,000 Jews live in well over 100 settlements established across the West Bank and East Jerusalem on land that Israel captured from Jordan in a 1967 Middle East war. The World Court deems settlements illegal but Israel disputes this.
Netanyahu has held out the prospect of limiting the scope of renewed construction, a message he seemed to underscore in an official statement Sunday.
"The prime minister calls on the residents in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and the political parties to show restraint and responsibility today and in the future exactly as they showed restraint and responsibility throughout the months of the freeze," it said.
But settler leaders vowed to begin erecting next week some 2,000 homes in the West Bank, where Netanyahu in November imposed under U.S. pressure a partial moratorium on housing starts.
ABBAS STANCE
In his statement Netanyahu said he had been in touch with Clinton and the leaders of Jordan and Egypt in the past few days in search of a way to ensure the nascent negotiations continued.
He urged Abbas "to continue the sincere, good talks we have just begun with the aim of reaching an historic peace agreement between our two peoples," a statement released by Netanyahu's office said.
"I hope that President Abbas will remain in the talks and continue with me on the path to peace that we began three weeks ago," Netanyahu said, adding: "my intentions to achieve peace are serious and honest."
Netanyahu said he had gone a "significant, long way to help the Palestinians" by easing restrictions on travel in the occupied West Bank and alluding to the recent easing of a land blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
"For the sake of the futures of both our peoples, let's focus on what is really important, let's continue expedited, honest talks in order to bring an historic framework agreement of peace within a year," he added, reiterating a goal set out by the U.S. when it sponsored a launch of peace talks this month.
Abbas has appeared to indicate the talks would not be suspended immediately upon the moratorium's expiration.
Asked in an interview with the pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat, whether he would declare an end to the negotiations if the freeze did not continue, Abbas said: "No, we will go back to the Palestinian institutions, to the Arab follow-up committee."
He was referring in the interview, conducted Friday and published Sunday, to an Arab League forum that gave him the go-ahead to pursue direct peace talks with Israel.
Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah said the Palestinian leader had requested a meeting of the follow-up committee in Cairo and it would likely convene "within days."
hear my name
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
...Netanyahu said, adding: "my intentions to achieve peace are serious and honest."
i dont know whether to laugh or cry or punch someone. *shakes head*
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
Because as long as they're just talking the bulldozers can keep moving.
Like I said before, there never were any 'peace talks'. The whole thing was a sham to begin with.
“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. “
no shit Sherlock.
so when are you going to do something about it?
gotta bomb Iran first...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-zoPgv_nYg
and this is my question.. if all israel is the same why not seek a peaceful existence away from an area that makes you just a political pawn. its not in your interest. you can still support your ideals just with more safety for your family and quite frankly the future of your state.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
"what kind of talk is this really from the President of the superpower. here he was at the United Nations, and he didn't have the guts to say that Israel's settlement construction is a gross violation of UN security council resolutions, and a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and it's not a favor to anybody for Israel to extend the so called moratorium it is a binding obligation under internation law. not only for israel to stop building the settlements but to tear down the settlements it's built in violation of International Law and to tear down the apartheid wall in the West Bank which was ruled illegal in 2004 by the International Court of Justice.
the President said in the case of Iran that International Law works, but for some strange reason the President of the United States doesn't have the guts to mention International Law when it comes to Israel.
why is that? "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKKU7Q13ktI
Ali is the co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and the author of “One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.”
Giving his blessing to go ahead with yet more illegal settlements is certainly not conducive to 'expedited, honest talks'. Again, proof that Israel are really not interested in peace.
Good to know they are showing restraint....
.
How magnanimous of him. :roll:
What's really important? End the occupation and the suffering of the Palestinians, adhere to UN resolutions. Easy.
netanyahu is living in that fantasy land of his again if he thinks this is going a "significantly long way to help the Palestinians."
considering that last week according to PCHR (Palestinian Centre for Human Rights), severe restrictions are still being imposed with approximately 585 permanent roadblocks, and manned and unmanned checkpoints across the West Bank,
you could always try standing behind International Law for a change. because didn't you say that in the case of Iran that International Law works?
why not Israel? why the two sets of rules?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11422065
'Hamas seized control of Gaza in December 2007, ousting Fatah forces loyal to Mr Abbas.'
On Monday, bulldozers started levelling ground for 50 homes in the settlement of Ariel in the northern West Bank, and similar activity was also reported in the settlements of Adam and Oranit. But construction work was reportedly slow because of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot
It is estimated that about 2,000 Jewish settlers' housing units in the West Bank already have approval and settler leaders said they planned to resume construction as soon as possible."
Glad it's no 'major' construction. What's a few more illegal settlements? After all, there's still land left in the West Bank...
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/4 ... nk_464.gif
So far they have chosen land.
When the cry about security begins, maybe it will make a little more sense to those on the fence (about the issue).
http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/episode/2 ... r-27-2010/
you can listen if you want ... it's either at the end of part 1 or near the beginning of part 2 ...
Obama letter confirms Palestinian fears
The disclosure of the details of a letter reportedly sent by US President Barack Obama last week to Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, will cause Palestinians to be even more skeptical about US and Israeli roles in the current peace talks.
According to the leak, Obama made a series of extraordinarily generous offers to Israel, many of them at the expense of the Palestinians, in return for a single minor concession from Netanyahu: a two-month extension of the partial freeze on settlement growth.
A previous 10-month freeze, which ended a week ago, has not so far been renewed by Netanyahu, threatening to bring the negotiations to an abrupt halt. The Palestinians are expected to decide whether to quit the talks over the coming days.
Netanyahu was reported last week to have declined the US offer.
The White House has denied that a letter was sent, but, according to the Israeli media, officials in Washington are privately incensed by Netanyahu's rejection.
The disclosures were made by an informed source: David Makovsky, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a close associate of Dennis Ross, Obama's chief adviser on the Middle East, who is said to have initiated the offer.
The letter's contents have also been partly confirmed by Jewish US senators who attended a briefing last week from Ross.
According to Makovsky, in return for the sixty-day settlement moratorium, the US promised to veto any UN Security Council proposal on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the next year, and committed to not seek any further extensions of the freeze. The future of the settlements would be addressed only in a final agreement.
The White House would also allow Israel to keep a military presence in the West Bank's Jordan Valley, even after the creation of a Palestinian state; continue controlling the borders of the Palestinian territories to prevent smuggling; provide Israel with enhanced weapons systems, security guarantees and increase its billions of dollars in annual aid; and create a regional security pact against Iran.
There are several conclusions the Palestinian leadership is certain to draw from this attempt at deal-making over its head.
The first is that the US president, much like his predecessors, is in no position to act as an honest broker. His interests in the negotiations largely coincide with Israel's.
Obama needs a short renewal of the freeze, and the semblance of continuing Israeli and Palestinian participation in the "peace process," until the US Congressional elections in November.
Criticism by the powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington may damage Obama's Democratic party unless he treads a very thin line. He needs to create the impression of progress in the Middle East talks but not upset Israel's supporters by making too many demands of Netanyahu.
The second conclusion -- already strongly suspected by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, and his advisers -- is that Netanyahu, despite his professed desire to establish a Palestinian state, is being insincere.
The White House's private offer meets most of Netanyahu's demands for US security and diplomatic assistance even before the negotiations have produced tangible results. For Netanyahu to reject the offer so lightly, even though the US was expecting relatively little in return, suggests he is either in no mood or in no position to make real concessions to the Palestinians on statehood.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported last Friday that senior White House officials were no longer "buying the excuse of political difficulties" for Netanyahu in holding his right-wing governing coalition together. If he cannot keep his partners on board over a short freeze on illegal settlement building, what meaningful permanent concessions can he make in the talks?
The third conclusion for the Palestinians is that no possible combination of governing parties in Israel is capable of signing an agreement with Abbas that will not entail significant compromises on the territorial integrity of a Palestinian state.
One US concession -- allowing Israel to maintain its hold on the Jordan Valley, nearly a fifth of the West Bank, for the foreseeable future -- reflects a demand common to all Israeli politicians, not just Netanyahu.
In fact, the terms of Obama's letter were drafted in cooperation with Ehud Barak, Israel's defense minister and leader of the supposedly left-wing Labor party. When he was prime minister a decade ago, he insisted on a similar military presence in the Valley during the failed Camp David talks.
Ariel Sharon, his successor and founder of the centrist Kadima party, planned a new section of the wall to divide the Jordan Valley from the rest of the West Bank, though the scheme was put on hold after American objections.
Today, most Palestinians cannot enter the Jordan Valley without a special permit that is rarely issued, and the area's tens of thousands of Palestinian inhabitants are subjected to constant military harassment. B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, has accused Israel of a "de facto annexation" of the area.
But without the Jordan Valley, the creation of a viable Palestinian state -- even one limited to the West Bank, without Gaza -- would be inconceivable. Statehood would instead resemble the Swiss-cheese model the Palestinians have long feared is all Israel is proposing.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11552.shtml
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
israel holds all the cards ... if obama doesn't get in line - he's done after 1 term and you know the GOP president will ALWAYS support israel ...
your average american still thinks of palestinians/arabs/muslims as bad guys ... until that changes - israel is control ...
i wonder why obama only wanted to have a 2 month extension on the settlement freeze...could it be that the most important elections of his presidency are in 1 month and he wants to be able to say throughout that campaign and election process he has made progress with peace talks in the middle east for political points???? if that is his motivation that is absolutely disgusting...it seems to me to all be such a fucking illusion, a charade...
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
it's all in the electorate tho ... that veto on the security council would be useless if americans demanded that human rights and justice take precedent ...
in general most people just can't be bothered....besides dancing with the stars is on, and people are too worried about what "snooki the hut" is doing these days... :roll:
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 05017.html
"YASSER ABED Rabbo, a senior Palestinian official, yesterday called on the US and Israel to provide a map of the state of Israel that Israel wants the Palestinians to accept.
“Israel is an unknown entity in terms of borders, [so] how does it suggest we recognise it as a Jewish state?” he asked.
“We want to know whether this [Israeli] state includes our lands and houses in the West Bank and East Jerusalem” – occupied by Israel in 1967.
“If the map is based on the 1967 borders and provides for the end of the Israeli occupation over Palestinian lands . . . then we will recognise Israel by whatever name it applies to itself in accordance with international law.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/wor ... 65246.html
Fair enough..... The ball is back in the Israel court. Though they will probably say it's a ridiculous counter offer. Not as ridiculous as the Israeli offer.....
Seems perfectly legitimate to me and is in accordance with world opinion - excluding the U.S - and international law, though the Israeli's will of course reject it, along with the Americans.