is this move going to be the death knell for peace talks??
gimmesometruth27
St. Fuckin Louis Posts: 23,303
the leaders of the Israeli government have to make a choice, either they want land and settlements, or they want peace. they can not have both...actions like this suggest they want the former, even in the face of international pressure....disgusting...
Israel approves new east Jerusalem homes
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_israel_palestinians
JERUSALEM – Israel has signed off on the construction of 238 homes in Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, bringing an end to an unofficial building freeze in the traditionally Arab sector of the city and further complicating peace talks stuck over the broader fate of West Bank settlements.
The Israeli Housing Ministry's announcement that developers would be allowed to bid for contracts to build new homes in the neighborhoods of Ramot and Pisgat Zeev drew swift condemnation Friday from Palestinian negotiators.
U.S.-brokered peace talks that began in early September are currently deadlocked over a Palestinian demand that Israel extend a slowdown on settlement construction that expired last month. The Palestinians are threatening to quit the negotiations unless Israel reinstates the building restrictions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to do so.
Both sides have indicated a compromise is possible, but U.S. mediators scrambling to keep the talks alive have failed to break the impasse so far.
Israel's decision to renew construction in east Jerusalem further soured the atmosphere.
"This announcement is a very clear-cut indication that the choice of Mr. Netanyahu is settlements, not peace," Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said, charging the Israelis with "closing all doors on attempts to revive the direct negotiations."
Netanyahu's office refused to comment.
Israel imposed a settlement slowdown in the West Bank last November. Those restrictions did not officially include east Jerusalem, although Israel had quietly halted building there as well without explicitly saying it was doing so.
Israel discussed the new construction with the U.S. administration and cut the number of planned units by several hundred to temper American displeasure, Israeli officials said. The U.S. was unhappy with Israel's decision but was not caught off guard by the announcement, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue.
An Israeli announcement earlier this year of new building in east Jerusalem came during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden, catching the U.S. administration by surprise and sparking a crisis in relations between the close allies.
There was no immediate comment from U.S. officials Friday.
The fate of traditionally Arab east Jerusalem is one of the most combustive issues in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Around 180,000 Israelis live in neighborhoods Israel has built in the eastern sector of the city since capturing the area from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast War and then annexing it. The international community has not recognized the annexation and sees the status of the Israeli neighborhoods as the same as that of other West Bank settlements.
East Jerusalem is home to around 250,000 Palestinians, who hope to make it the capital of a future state.
Past peace plans have proposed leaving the Jewish neighborhoods under Israeli sovereignty. But Palestinians and the U.S. have said Israeli construction there is provocative nonetheless and undermines peace talks.
Egypt's foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said Friday that if Israel continues to build settlements Arab nations might seek U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state without Israel's approval.
Aboul Gheit said the Arab League's request to the U.N. on the matter might come as early as next month.
A unilateral declaration of Palestinian independence would have few practical implications, but would serve to increase international pressure on Israel.
Israel approves new east Jerusalem homes
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_israel_palestinians
JERUSALEM – Israel has signed off on the construction of 238 homes in Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, bringing an end to an unofficial building freeze in the traditionally Arab sector of the city and further complicating peace talks stuck over the broader fate of West Bank settlements.
The Israeli Housing Ministry's announcement that developers would be allowed to bid for contracts to build new homes in the neighborhoods of Ramot and Pisgat Zeev drew swift condemnation Friday from Palestinian negotiators.
U.S.-brokered peace talks that began in early September are currently deadlocked over a Palestinian demand that Israel extend a slowdown on settlement construction that expired last month. The Palestinians are threatening to quit the negotiations unless Israel reinstates the building restrictions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to do so.
Both sides have indicated a compromise is possible, but U.S. mediators scrambling to keep the talks alive have failed to break the impasse so far.
Israel's decision to renew construction in east Jerusalem further soured the atmosphere.
"This announcement is a very clear-cut indication that the choice of Mr. Netanyahu is settlements, not peace," Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said, charging the Israelis with "closing all doors on attempts to revive the direct negotiations."
Netanyahu's office refused to comment.
Israel imposed a settlement slowdown in the West Bank last November. Those restrictions did not officially include east Jerusalem, although Israel had quietly halted building there as well without explicitly saying it was doing so.
Israel discussed the new construction with the U.S. administration and cut the number of planned units by several hundred to temper American displeasure, Israeli officials said. The U.S. was unhappy with Israel's decision but was not caught off guard by the announcement, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue.
An Israeli announcement earlier this year of new building in east Jerusalem came during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden, catching the U.S. administration by surprise and sparking a crisis in relations between the close allies.
There was no immediate comment from U.S. officials Friday.
The fate of traditionally Arab east Jerusalem is one of the most combustive issues in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Around 180,000 Israelis live in neighborhoods Israel has built in the eastern sector of the city since capturing the area from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast War and then annexing it. The international community has not recognized the annexation and sees the status of the Israeli neighborhoods as the same as that of other West Bank settlements.
East Jerusalem is home to around 250,000 Palestinians, who hope to make it the capital of a future state.
Past peace plans have proposed leaving the Jewish neighborhoods under Israeli sovereignty. But Palestinians and the U.S. have said Israeli construction there is provocative nonetheless and undermines peace talks.
Egypt's foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said Friday that if Israel continues to build settlements Arab nations might seek U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state without Israel's approval.
Aboul Gheit said the Arab League's request to the U.N. on the matter might come as early as next month.
A unilateral declaration of Palestinian independence would have few practical implications, but would serve to increase international pressure on Israel.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
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just look at the explosion in expansion during the oslo talks, it's always been about taking as much land as they can get away with.
what are you but my reflection? who am i to judge or strike you down?
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama
when you told me 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
i was thinkin 'death before dishonor'
that said, i think you are right. if it was about peace there would be certain concessions made. until those are made, it looks suspect at best that they are interested in peace at all...
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
oh, i know you weren't, when i brought up ultra orthodox mentalities some had a fit claiming i was calling ALL orthodox jews bigots. i was trying to save a few pages of disctractionary bickering.
what are you but my reflection? who am i to judge or strike you down?
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama
when you told me 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
i was thinkin 'death before dishonor'
It's already been made perfectly clear what Israel's obligations are under international law, so the 'peace talks' are just a stalling tactic.
and itll be portrayed in the press as the israelis having tried... but you know those damn palestinians they just wouldnt compromise.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Cite Israel's refusal to extend ban on settlement construction in West Bank
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39699565/ns ... tn_africa/
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinians will study alternatives to peace talks with Israel in the coming days, a top PLO official said Saturday, after Israel gave the green light to build 238 new houses for Jews on war-won land Palestinians seek for their state.
However, it's unlikely the Palestinians will take any dramatic steps before Nov. 2 midterm elections in the U.S., since Arab leaders have already promised the Obama administration more time — until a few days after the vote — to try to relaunch negotiations. Saturday's statements seemed intended mainly as a new warning that Washington's peace efforts are in trouble.
The negotiations, launched by the U.S. in early September, quickly broke down over Israel's refusal to extend a limited curb on construction in West Bank settlements, deemed illegal by the international community.
The Palestinians want to establish their state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem — territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War — and say there is no point negotiating as long as expanding settlements gobble up more of that land.
Nearly half a million Israelis live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Israel's 10-month moratorium on new housing starts in the West Bank expired Sept. 26. Israel never formally declared building restrictions in east Jerusalem, though an informal freeze was believed to have been in effect for several months. However, Israel announced on Thursday plans to build 238 more homes for Jews in east Jerusalem, sought by the Palestinians as a future capital.
The Palestinians sharply criticized the move. Both the U.S. and Russia said in separate statements that they were disappointed by Israel's announcement and that the new construction plans run counter to efforts to rescue the negotiations.
Israeli officials said the new construction was confined to neighborhoods that would remain in Israeli hands in any proposed peace plan and in no way contradicted Israel's goal of reaching peace with the Palestinians.
On Saturday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization and his Fatah movement at his headquarters in the West Bank.
The Palestinians plan to study their options in coming days, said Yasser Abed Rabbo, the secretary general of the PLO.
"These political options include going to the U.N. and to the Security Council," he said.
Palestinian officials have said in the past they might ask the Security Council to recognize a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, in case negotiations with Israel break down. The U.S. could quickly derail such a move with a veto, and it appears unlikely the Palestinians would proceed down that path without U.S. backing. For now, Washington opposes unilateral steps.
Mohammed Ishtayeh, a senior Fatah official, said the Palestinians will have prepared options by the time they consult with the Arab League in three weeks.
"We and the Arabs will choose which of these options can be implemented," he said. "It's not just a matter of going here or there, without having an outcome on the ground, because some of these options need American consent or facilitation."
Abed Rabbo, meanwhile, rejected Netanyahu's recent proposal that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish national homeland, in exchange for Israel reimposing the curb on settlements. Abed Rabbo noted that the PLO and Israel formally recognized each other in 1993. "There is no need to reopen the issue (of recognition)," he said.
In other developments Saturday, a German mediator involved in the past in trying to broker a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas secretly visited Hamas-ruled Gaza, said Osama Mazeini, a senior official in the Islamic militant group.
Hamas is trying to swap an Israeli soldier it captured in 2006 for hundreds of supporters held by Israel. Negotiations have been deadlocked for months, and the mediator's recent visit suggests efforts are being made to renew the talks.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment.
Lakhdar Brahimi, a former U.N. envoy and Algerian Foreign Minister, said he and a visiting delegation to Gaza discussed the matter with Hamas leaders.
"They told us that there are some contacts but they did not give us any details on this subject," he said.
——
Associated Press writer Diaa Hadid contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
Palestinians walk in front of a wall painting showing captive Israeli army soldier Sgt. Gilad Schalit, in the Jebaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Cracks widen in Netanyahu's coalition
Labour leaders talk of government collapse as housing plans announced in East Jerusalem
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oc ... -netanyahu
Israel's coalition government, led by Binyamin Netanyahu, appears to be in danger of fracturing over the gridlocked peace process and a controversial "loyalty law".
As Israel announced the building of 238 more housing units in annexed East Jerusalem, further complicating US efforts to revive stalled peace negotiations, it emerged that Ehud Barak, the Labour leader, is predicting that the government will collapse.
The party's social affairs minister, Isaac Herzog, has also been threatening to quit unless direct talks with the Palestinians are reopened by the end of this month.
Although the two areas where new building has been announced were not part of the 10-month freeze on building in the West Bank, which recently expired, Israeli building in neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem – which Palestinians want to be the capital of a future state – is deeply controversial.
The stability of Netanyahu's government is being threatened on two fronts. Its right opposes any extension to the building moratorium. And Labour may pull out unless there is progress in the peace talks – unlikely if the moratorium is broken.
Some analysts believe that Netanyahu may be preparing to reach out to the main opposition party, Kadima, led by Tzipi Livni.
The latest problems for Netanyahu came as a senior Hamas official said a German mediator trying to broker the release of an Israeli soldier held for four years in Gaza recently visited the Palestinian territory after months of deadlock. A Hamas leader said yesterday that the mediator made a "feeler visit", suggesting a renewed attempt to push forward negotiations to swap Sgt. Gilad Schalit for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
East Jerusalem. On the left is Beit Hanina, on the right - separated by the road - is the settlement of Pisgat Ze'ev, one of the areas designated to receive 238 new housing units. Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
I think they're suggesting that the Israeli government is in danger of splitting between the right-wing scum bags who want to steal more land from the Palestinians and those who want to see an end to the violence.
I think there were ~12 political parties running in the last election. Kadima (candidate Tzipi Livni) is a left-wing party and they actually got the most votes in the last election. Kadima won 29 seats in the Knesset and Likud (candidate Netanyahu) won 27. However, Israel is governed by coalitions and Likud was able to put together the biggest coalition. So that coalition took control with Netanyahu as prime minister.
So Netanyahu now has alliances with parties more to the right of him and more to the left of him (like Labor Party which I think has ~13 seats and is either center or center-left).
The article says both right and left parties in his coalition are threatening to abandon their alliance if he doesn't work with them on either settlements (right wingers) or peace talks (left-wingers). If either abandon him, his coalition will fall apart, he won't hold enough votes in Knesset to get anything done and he is no longer able to govern. Maybe If he reaches out to Kadima (Livni), he'd have enough votes to put a coalition back together, but I have no idea if that's even a possibility. I also don't know what is going to happen if his falls apart and Kadima doesn't work with him -- could Kadima put together a coaliton of their own now?
Is that what you were asking? Maybe one of the Israelis has a better explanation. Their system is so friggin' complicated...
Kadima: We'll join gov't if PM is serious about intentions
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=189386
"Livni herself said that Kadima will join the government if Netanyahu is serious about his intentions to reach a full peace deal and will support another coalition if established, which represents these intentions. There is no change in this position."
people in power make tough decisions all the time. it is only the courageous ones that will make a difference and make those difficult choices for the good of all...that is my gripe with obama. he can have a great influence over this situation if he chose to, but he is a coward and will not take a firm stand one way or the other..
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Palestinians May Ask Security Council to Proclaim State in Gaza and West Bank
But move would require a seismic and unlikely shift in U.S.-Israel relations.
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/10/18/pale ... -bank.html
Is Middle East peacemaking dead again? With direct talks already suspended just weeks after they were launched in Washington, the Israeli government last week approved construction of 240 new homes for Jews in East Jerusalem, dealing the process yet another blow. The Obama administration is determined to prevent its total collapse at least until after the U.S. midterm elections. But Palestinians are already contemplating their next move.
According to two Palestinian government sources who did not want to be named discussing strategy, the idea is to ask the United Nations Security Council to proclaim the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, along the pre-1967 borders, and set a timetable for implementation. Israel can usually count on the United States to squelch such resolutions. But Palestinians believe President Obama would at least consider withholding America’s veto. “For the first time, it’s not inconceivable,” says Ghassan Khatib, the director of the Palestinian government’s media center. “The administration seems to be convinced that Israel might be the party responsible for not allowing the bilateral process to move ahead.”
Israel is accustomed to harsh treatment at the U.N. and has traditionally responded to hostile statements and decisions with a derisive wrist flick. But a Security Council resolution would be harder to ignore. At the very least, it would add to international pressure on and isolation of Israel—an issue Israelis are increasingly worried about. Khatib says a resolution might also offer Palestinians a legal mechanism for forcing Israel to withdraw from the West Bank. “It would create a new reality.”
It would also require a seismic shift in relations between Israel and the United States, the kind many analysts believe is unlikely. This past summer, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama appeared to move beyond their initial antagonism with meetings that both sides portrayed as positive. When their relationship was more strained earlier this year, an Israeli source who had served as a senior official in Netanyahu’s government says, the Obama administration made clear that Israeli intransigence would make it hard for the U.S. to continue offering blanket cover at the Security Council. The warning caused deep concern within the Israeli government, according to the official.
Israel has since sought assurances that vetoes would still be imposed. Asked now what would happen if Palestinians proposed a Security Council resolution, U.S. officials refused to comment, while an Israeli official in Netanyahu’s office described it as a negotiating tactic. Netanyahu’s spokesman, Mark Regev, said: “The only way to bridge the historic gaps that separate Israelis from Palestinians is through direct talks and with both sides showing both creativity and flexibility. There is no other path.”
One Washington insider, former U.S. ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer, said in an e-mail: “While I don’t know for sure, it appears the issue is in the air.” He said Obama would prefer the matter not come up for now but speculated that the president might change his mind if peace talks prove impossible to revive.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
well would be more convenient for mr obama??
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
i think the partition wall shows creativity. as do the excuses the israelis come up with to continue their oppression of the palestinian people.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
i laughed when i read that too..
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
The so-called Israei-Palestinian 'peace talks' may well go down in history as one of the longest-running, and most succesful scams ever perpetrated.
Mustafa Barghouthi, The Electronic Intifada, 18 October 2010
Negotiations between two unequal parties cannot succeed. Success in Palestinian-Israeli negotiations requires a reasonable balance of power, clear terms of reference and abstention of both sides from imposing unilateral facts on the ground. None of that existed in the talks that were re-initiated in September.
Much like previous rounds of talks, these negotiations were dominated on one side by an Israeli government that controls the land, roads, airspace, borders, water and electricity, as well as the trade and economy of the Palestinian side, while possessing a powerful military establishment (now the third military exporter in the world) and a robust gross domestic product, which has tripled in the last decade.
This same Israeli "partner" now also boasts a general public that has shifted dramatically to the right, and to which an apartheid system for Palestinians has become an acceptable norm.
On the other side is the Palestinian Authority -- one that paradoxically holds little real authority, and exists as a sort of fiefdom within the Israeli matrix of control. Further debilitating the PA is a protracted internal Palestinian division, total dependence on foreign aid and a decline of democracy and human rights. Finally, the Palestinian Authority is constantly pressured to provide security for its occupier while failing to provide any protection whatsoever to its own people from that same occupier.
How did we get here? The answer, in large part, has to do with the continued and unabated construction of settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in the 17 years since the Oslo agreement.
In this time, the number of settlers has increased by 300 percent and the number of settlements doubled. The settlements are only the front line of a complex and profitable system that includes checkpoints, road segregation, security zones, the "apartheid wall" and "natural reserves."
This matrix has for years eaten up the land, water resources and the economic space of the independent Palestinian state supposedly being negotiated in this same period. About 60 percent of the West Bank and 80 percent of water resources have been consumed this way.
We have reached, and probably surpassed, that critical point at which any more settlements mean the death of the two-state solution.
The Israeli establishment knows this better than anybody. They also know that their hard-line positions on issues like Jerusalem and borders mean transforming the idea of Palestinian statehood into something much less: isolated clusters of land in a system of segregation.
The International Court of Justice and endless United Nations resolutions have ruled that settlements are illegal and should be removed. Even the Road Map issued by the so-called Quartet (the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia) in 2003 said that all settlement activities must stop. Yet neither the United States nor the Quartet as a whole has had the guts to exert serious pressure on Israel to stop settlements.
So what is left?
The only way to save the two-state solution is for the Palestinians to declare the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, including East Jerusalem, and to demand that the world community recognize it and its borders -- as it did in the case of Kosovo.
That would also mean supporting the right of Palestinians to struggle nonviolently to end the occupation of their state. Any future negotiations, therefore, would not be about the right of the Palestinians to have their own sovereign independent state, but rather about how to apply and implement that right.
This would be the true test of the state-building strategy of the United States and the donor community. It would be the real instrument to finally demarcate the difference between support for free Palestinian institutions in a sovereign and viable state, or footing the bill of occupation and using EU and US tax dollars to maintain under various guises what will never amount to anything but an apartheid system denying Palestinians their human and national rights.
If the world community turns its back on such a declaration of independence by using the well-worn and insulting argument that every step should first be verified with the Israeli government, then the message will be clear: peace based on two states is no longer an option.
Mustafa Barghouthi is the founder of the Palestinian National Initiative and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. This essay was originally published by the International Herald Tribune and is republished with the author's permission.
Israeli presence on Palestinian land 'irreversible'
By Barbara Plett BBC UN correspondent, New York
23 October 2010
A UN human rights rapporteur has said continued settlement construction will probably make Israel's occupation of Palestinian land irreversible.
Richard Falk said the peace process aimed at creating an independent, sovereign Palestinian state therefore appeared to be based on an illusion.
He said the UN, the US and Israel had failed to uphold Palestinians' rights.
Israeli officials said Mr Falk's report on the Palestinian territories was biased and served a political agenda.
Continue reading the main story
Israel and the Palestinians
* Mid-East talks: Where they stand
* Q&A: Resuming direct talks
* Confusion surrounds Arab summit
* Hope and anger as freeze expires
Nearly half a million Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They are held to be illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.
'De-facto annexation'
In a report for the UN General Assembly, Mr Falk said Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem had become so extensive it amounted to de-facto annexation of Palestinian land.
He said this undercut assumptions behind UN Security Council resolutions which said Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory in 1967 was temporary and reversible.
Such assumptions are the basis for the current peace process aimed at creating an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
This now appears to be an illusion, said Mr Falk.
Israel said the report was utterly biased and served a political agenda, criticising its author for making no mention of what it called Palestinian terrorist attacks.
Continue reading the main story
Israeli settlements on occupied land
* More than 430,000 settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, alongside 2.5 million Palestinians
* 20,000 settlers live in the Golan Heights
* Settlements and the area they take up cover 40% of the West Bank
* There are about 100 settlements not authorised by the Israeli government in the West Bank
* An Israeli settlement in close-up
* In the shadow of an Israeli settlement
Mr Falk told journalists that his mandate was to report on the Israeli occupation, not on the rights and wrongs of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He said he based his conclusion not only on the deepening expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, but on the eviction of Palestinians from East Jerusalem, and the demolition of their homes.
Israel's refusal to extend a partial 10-month freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank has derailed peace negotiations sponsored by the United States. Washington wants them resumed.
But Mr Falk said both governments and the United Nations had failed to uphold Palestinian rights.
He urged the UN to support civil society initiatives, such as campaigns to sanction or boycott Israel for alleged violations of international law.
Israel plans 1,300 East Jerusalem Jewish settler homes
8 November 2010
Israel has revealed plans to build nearly 1,300 housing units for Jewish settlers in occupied East Jerusalem.
Building settlements is illegal under international law and recent efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have stalled over the issue.
The announcement comes as Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is on an official visit to the US.
The US said the move was disappointing, while Palestinian officials said it was an attempt to sabotage the talks.
"We thought that Netanyahu was going to the United States to stop settlement activity and restart negotiations, but it is clear to us that he is determined to destroy the talks," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
The Interior Ministry said that final approval had been given for almost 1,000 new homes in the East Jerusalem settlement of Har Homa, near the Palestinian town of Bethlehem, and about 300 in an area called Ramot.
A ministry spokeswoman told the BBC that the plans were being published to invite public comment and that actual construction was likely to be years away.
East Jerusalem is regarded as occupied Palestinian territory by the international community, but Israel says it is part of its territory.
Israel has been urged by many foreign governments, including the United States, to resume a partial building freeze in settlements on the occupied West Bank and to maintain an unofficial status quo in East Jerusalem, in order to help faltering peace talks with the Palestinians.
The news that more than 1,000 new homes have been approved in East Jerusalem could cast a shadow over a visit to the US by Mr Netanyahu, says the BBC's Wyre Davis in Jerusalem.
US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said the White House was "deeply disappointed" by the announcement and viewed it as "counterproductive to our efforts to resume direct negotiations between the parties".
Israel angered the US administration earlier this year when a similar announcement was made during a trip to Jerusalem by US Vice-President Joe Biden.
Mr Biden and other US officials are holding meetings this week with the Israeli leader about ways to resume the peace talks - and peace campaigners say the latest announcement from the Israeli government is deliberately provocative, our correspondent says.
The Palestinians have refused to go back to the negotiations - which resumed in Washington in September after a break of almost 20 months - without a stop to building Jewish settlements on the territory they want as their future state.
Israel has occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967, settling close to 500,000 Jews in more than 100 settlements.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Israeli plans to build 800 homes in West Bank settlement spark US anger
Plan for new homes in Ariel reported to be at advanced stage, needing only approval of local planning and building committee
* Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 9 November 2010
Israel today sparked fresh US anger when a plan to build 800 new homes in the West Bank settlement of Ariel was revealed hours after the Obama administration expressed "deep disappointment" at the approval of more than 1,300 new Jewish homes in East Jerusalem.
The plan for the new homes, in an area of Ariel close to the Palestinian town of Salfit, was reported to be at an advanced stage, needing only the approval of the local planning and building committee.
The disclosure drew a furious reaction from the Palestinians, who said it was time for the international community to immediately recognise a Palestinian state on the pre-occupation 1967 borders.
Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians' chief negotiator, said: "Once more, at the moment when we expected Prime Minister Netanyahu to announce a full settlement freeze ... he has sent Palestinians and the US administration a clear message that Israel chooses settlements, not peace."
The Ariel and East Jerusalem proposals came six weeks after the end of a 10-month partial freeze on settlement construction.
Since then, fledgling direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been on hold while the US tries to broker an extension to the freeze.
The Palestinians have said they will end negotiations without a further moratorium – but the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has so far not ceded to US pressure.
Netanyahu, who is currently in the US, will meet the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, on Thursday. She is expected to press further for Israel to agree to extend the freeze to prevent the collapse of the talks.
Following the disclosure of plans to build more than 1,300 new homes in Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem, Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief, said the plan "contradicts the efforts by the international community to resume direct negotiations, and the decision should be reversed".
Settlements threatened to make a two-state solution impossible, she added today. "The European Union will not recognise any changes to the pre-1967 borders, including Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties," she said.
Speaking in Indonesia, the US president, Barack Obama, said: "This kind of activity is never helpful when it comes to peace negotiations."
The US state department spokesman PJ Crowley said yesterday: "We were deeply disappointed by the announcement of advance planning for new housing units in sensitive areas of East Jerusalem. It is counterproductive to our efforts to resume direct negotiations between the parties."
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, also expressed displeasure over the proposal at a meeting with Netanyahu in New York.
In a statement, Ban said he was concerned at "plans for further settlements and plans to build more Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem", adding that it was "vital to break the current diplomatic stalemate, resume negotiations and produce results".
The East Jerusalem plans cover almost 980 new homes in Har Homa, 320 in Ramot and 32 in Psgat Ze'ev, all situated on the Palestinian side of the Green Line.
"This is a huge provocation by Netanyahu at a very sensitive time in the negotiation process," Hagit Ofran of Peace Now, an Israeli advocacy group monitoring settlement activity, said.
"The timing ... is not accidental. Without the intervention of the government, the settlers will take the opportunity to promote every [construction] plan they can."
US frustration at Israeli foot-dragging on a fresh settlement freeze is mounting. Some diplomats fear Israel is stalling for long enough to get a substantial number of construction "starts" under way, which would then be exempt from any new moratorium.
A spokeswoman for Ariel refused to confirm or deny the plan to build new homes in the settlement. However, the settlement's mayor, Ron Nachman, reportedly told the city council last month that the new housing plan was "a very big thing".
He also said construction had resumed in other areas of the city, including the large industrial zone.
Ariel, home to almost 20,000 settlers, juts deep into the West Bank. Israel wants it to remain on its side of any border resulting from peace negotiations with the Palestinians. The Palestinians say it would jeopardise the territorial contiguity of a future state.
The US has given no guarantees to Israel on the future of Ariel under any peace deal, and some senior Israeli politicians admit it is in question.
Earlier this year, Netanyahu visited Ariel to plant trees in the settlement. "We want to strengthen the peace and co-existence with our neighbours – but this will not stop us from continuing with our lives here, where we'll continue to plant trees and to build," he said.
"Ariel ... will be an integral, inseparable part of the state of Israel in any future arrangement."
All settlements on occupied territory are illegal under international law. Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem is not recognised by the international community.
Ali.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Hillary Clinton Blasts Israel Settlement Expansion Plans
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday criticized Israel's latest building plans in east Jerusalem, an issue that has divided the two governments and imperiled efforts to revive Middle East peace talks.
Clinton called the proposed construction of 1,300 apartments "counterproductive" and an obstacle to restarting peace talks with the Palestinians.
"The United States was deeply disappointed by the announcement of advance planning for new housing units in sensitive areas of east Jerusalem," Clinton told reporters at the State Department.
Her remarks came one day before she was scheduled to meet in New York with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who earlier rejected President Barack Obama's criticism of the construction project.
Netanyahu's office issued a statement Tuesday that said "Jerusalem is not a settlement; it is the capital of the state of Israel," and insisted there was "no link" between the peace talks and its development plans for the city.
The Palestinians hope to make eastern Jerusalem the capital of a future Palestinian state as part of a peace deal. Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war.
The latest round of Israeli-Palestinian talks began in September after a nearly two year interruption, but they quickly stalled over the issue of settlement expansion.
Palestinians have said they will not resume the talks unless Israel halts construction of new housing in Jewish settlements in Israeli-occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.
They have demanded that Israel renew a 10-month West Bank settlement slowdown that expired in late September – and add Jerusalem to it.
Clinton's criticism of the Israeli move came as she announced $150 million in additional U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority Wednesday. The U.S. is trying to help the Palestinians create the government for their new state that would exist beside Israel, as envisioned in the peace talks.
The administration provided about $600 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority in its 2010 budget, and has asked Congress for authority to provide a similar amount in the 2011 fiscal year.
The money is part of U.S. and international support for Palestinian efforts to establish the basic institutions of a state, including a justice system and a viable economy.
Clinton credited Palestinian leaders with "reversing a history of corruption and producing results that actually matter and improve the lives of Palestinians," while cautioning that progress could stall without broad international support.
Clinton spoke from Washington via videoconference with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Ramallah, the West Bank headquarters of the Palestinian Authority.
Fayyad thanked Clinton for the additional U.S. aid and was muted in his criticism of the latest Israel settlement construction plan. He called it "a very serious challenge and a problem for all of us," but he made no explicit mention of how it will affect prospects for resuming peace talks.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit also met with Clinton Wednesday and told reporters that his government is worried by the impasse.
"We feel that Israel is not doing what is required," he said. Egypt was the first Arab country to reach peace with the Jewish state.
Clinton said she and Aboul Gheit also discussed chances for a breakthrough in Iraq's effort to form a unity government following inconclusive national elections in March.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
UN: No change in Gaza despite easing of Israel blockade
By Jon Donnison BBC News, Gaza City
7 October 2010
The UN says there has been "no material change" for people in Gaza since Israel announced it was "easing" its economic blockade of the Palestinian territory.
In June Israel said it would lift some of its restrictions on Gaza to allow in more food and consumer goods.
The move followed international pressure after the deaths of nine Turkish activists aboard a flotilla of ships trying to break the blockade.
The head of UN operations in Gaza said few people had noticed any difference.
"There's been no material change for the people on the ground here in terms of their status, the aid dependency, the absence of any recovery or reconstruction, no economy," the UN's John Ging told the BBC.
"The easing, at it was described, has been nothing more than a political easing of the pressure on Israel and Egypt."
There are now more Israeli products allowed into Gaza. But virtually all exports are still banned, which has devastated Gaza's economy.
And the blockade on people remains. It is still extremely difficult for Palestinians to get Israeli permission to leave Gaza.
Mr Ging accused Israel of ignoring demands from the international community to lift the blockade.
A spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry said the UN was missing the point.
"The UN refuses to talk about the elephant in the room," said Yigal Palmor.
"Why are there any problems in exporting and sometimes importing goods into Gaza? Why is the border blockaded? Because the territory has been overtaken by a declared terror movement."
The blockade was originally tightened in 2007 after the Islamist movement Hamas came to power in Gaza. Israel as well as the US and the European union regard Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
Let the bells ring out!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11736546
US and Israel agree to seek Middle East peace talks
11 November 2010
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have agreed after hours of discussions to seek the resumption of direct Middle East peace talks.
The meeting focused on resuming negotiations to produce "a two-state solution", they said in a statement.
The two met in New York amid a row over Israeli plans to build new homes for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem.
The Palestinians have left negotiations over the new settlement construction.
Mrs Clinton and Mr Netanyahu's meeting "focused on creating the conditions for the resumption of direct negotiations aimed at producing a two-state solution", their joint statement said.
"Their teams will work closely together in the coming days toward that end."
Mrs Clinton also assured Mr Netanyahu that Israel's security requirements would be "fully taken into account" in any future peace deal with the Palestinians.
But after more than seven hours of talks, the two gave no indication as to how they intended to break the impasse over Jewish settlement building.
An Israeli moratorium on building new settlements expired at the end of September. Earlier this month, Israel announced plans to build 1,300 new homes for Jewish settlers on disputed land in East Jerusalem.
The Palestinians have said they will not return to the negotiating table until new settlement construction halts.
The US has said the settlements are unhelpful and has urged the two sides to restart negotiations.
Negotiations, launched with what correspondents described as great pomp by President Barack Obama in early September, ran aground after just two rounds of talks.
Earlier on Thursday, speaking in Ramallah at an event to mark the anniversary of the death of Yasser Arafat, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas asked Israelis to choose peace over settlements.
"I now turn to the Israeli people. I hope they will hear us - those who believe in peace, if they exist," Mr Abbas said.
The US announced a new $150m (£93m) aid package on Wednesday for the Palestinian Authority.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11751713
US offers Israel incentive plan for settlement freeze
14 November 2010
The US has offered Israel a package of incentives in exchange for a settlement construction freeze in the West Bank, diplomatic sources say.
Under the reported plan, Israel would stop construction for 90 days in the West Bank but not in East Jerusalem.
The Israeli cabinet is now considering the package.
The settlement row threatens to derail direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which resumed in the US in September after a break of almost 20 months.
Israel and the US have not commented on the details of the plan.
It was discussed when US secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York on Thursday, BBC State Department correspondent Kim Ghattas says.
According to the diplomatic sources, the plan includes a US pledge not to seek any extension to the settlement building freeze beyond 90 days.
In return, Washington reportedly offered Israel various security guarantees and commits itself to fighting international resolutions critical of Israel.
Peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians stalled a few weeks after their resumption, as Israel's 10-month construction freeze in the West Bank expired on 26 September.
The Palestinians - backed by the Arab League - have pledged not to return to the talks without a full settlement construction freeze, but have given US negotiators until early November to try to break the impasse.
Washington has been trying desperately for two months to revive deadlocked peace talks, and the reported 90-day freeze may be enough to get the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, our correspondent says.
She adds that within those three months Washington hopes it can get serious discussions under way about the borders of a future Palestinian state.
Last month, Mr Netanyahu offered to renew the freeze if the Palestinians recognised Israel as a Jewish state, but the Palestinian leadership dismissed the proposal as unfair.
Israel has occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967, settling close to 500,000 Jews in more than 100 settlements. They are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this