Britain urges Netanyahu to seek two-state solution APR 3,09
LONDON (AFP) – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to engage constructively to seek a two-state solution with Palestinians, his office said Friday.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas claims that Netanyahu, who took office this week, has never believed in a two-state solution of Israel and Palestine living peacefully as neighbours.Brown's Downing Street office said the British leader called Netanyahu on Thursday night to congratulate him, and also discussed Iran and the Middle East peace process.The prime minister encouraged Netanyahu to engage constructively towards a two state solution, building on the Arab Peace Initiative, in particular through action on settlements,it said in a statement.
Netanyahu began his second term as Israeli prime minister on Wednesday as the Palestinians warned that the hawk heading a largely right-wing cabinet does not believe in peace.Abbas told the official Palestinian news agency: Benjamin Netanyahu never believed in a two-state solution, or accepted signed agreements and does not want to stop settlement activity. This is obvious.
Israel's Hawkish New Leaders: Still Open to a Syrian Peace? AP By SCOTT MACLEOD / CAIRO – Fri Apr 3, 5:35 am ET
It sounds more than a little fanciful to imagine Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signing a historic peace agreement with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on the White House lawn, with President Barack Obama looking on. Taken at face value, Israel's new, hard-line government is not exactly campaigning for the Nobel Peace Prize.At his swearing-in ceremony, Netanyahu's Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, sent out aggressive signals, renouncing some of the relatively dovish positions of outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - whose government spent its final year in office negotiating indirectly with Syria and directly with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Lieberman rejected the Bush Administration's Annapolis peace initiative, under which Olmert and Abbas had talked about the parameters of a Palestinian state. And he insisted that Israel would never withdraw from the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in 1967. Whoever thinks that he will achieve something by way of concessions - no, he will only invite more pressure and more wars, Lieberman said. If you want peace, prepare for war.Despite his hard-line and inflammatory rhetoric, however, Lieberman may be a pragmatist. Unlike many on Israel's right - including Netanyahu - Lieberman supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In a Ha'aretz interview after taking office, Lieberman said Israel should abide by the 2002 Roadmap, which calls for a Palestinian state. The Roadmap obliges the Palestinians to stop violence and dismantle the capabilities of terror organizations, and reform their political institutions, before any movement toward the creation of a Palestinian state. But, in the same phase, it obliges Israel to freeze settlement construction and dismantle all settlement outposts built since March 2001. Lieberman appears to recognize those obligations, and in the Ha'aretz interview, he mocked Olmert and his team as hypocrites who advocated peace but did little to achieve it. How many outposts did Olmert, Barak and Livni evacuate? he said.
It remains to be seen whether Lieberman would be willing to accept a truly independent Palestinian state - Netanyahu has indicated that he won't, insisting, in the name of the Jewish state's security, that Israel control the air space and borders of such an entity, and have veto over its military and foreign policies. Netanyahu's track record, however, is also more pragmatic than ideological. Despite his open loathing of Yasser Arafat, his previous government in 1998 signed a deal with the late PLO leader for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from parts of the West Bank, including the sensitive biblical town of Hebron. It's worth noting, of course, that even had the more dovish Tzipi Livni been in charge, peace with the Palestinians would not be achieved any time soon. That's because political divisions on the Palestinian and Arab side are an even bigger mess than the hawkish Netanyahu's hodgepodge coalition of ultranationalist hard-liners like Lieberman and longtime peace negotiators like his Defense Minister, Labor Party leader Ehud Barak. Still, Netanyahu is experienced enough to know that his success as a leader of Israel will depend substantially on his ability to manage the peace process - and, at least, to be seen to be making progress. And that may make him more open to pursuing the Syria option. Publicly, at least, Netanyahu continues to take a hard line, rejecting the idea of an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights in order to get peace with Syria. Lieberman talks only of peace for peace, rather than land for peace. But Netanyahu knows that no peace deal is possible without returning the Syrian territory captured in the war of 1967, and he may be ready to find a formula for its return if Syria is truly ready for a peace deal. Syrian President Assad, having established firm control of the often opaque regime he inherited from his late father, Hafez al-Assad, appears to be willing to pick up where his father left off in seeking a deal with Israel. Assad was instrumental in starting indirect, Turkish-mediated talks with Israel despite initial opposition by the Bush Administration. In the past, two former Labor Prime Ministers, the late Yitzhak Rabin and Barak, were ready to withdraw from almost all of the Golan Heights. Netanyahu himself may have been, too: during his first term as Prime Minister, he reportedly ran a back-channel negotiation with the Syrians.
President Obama recently sent two senior officials to Damascus to test the waters, signaling Washington's willingness to end its campaign to isolate Syria. And early success on the Israel-Syria track would do wonders for the Administration's wider Middle East ambitions. Not only would it formally cement the 40-plus years of relative calm on the Israeli-Syrian frontier, it would potentially detach Syria from its alliance with Iran, and enlist Damascus in moderating or eliminating two key radical elements - Hamas and Hizballah - on Israel's borders. Iran's resulting loss of influence in the region could, in turn, help induce Tehran to rethink its more confrontational positions, particularly on the nuclear issue. A Syria-first approach to peace talks has often encountered resistance in diplomatic circles on the grounds that the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict is the Palestinian problem. That may be true, but the counterargument might go that in the Middle East, you also have to play the hand you're dealt. Despite their hawkish talk, Netanyahu and Lieberman are unlikely to resist an opportunity to conclude a peace agreement between Israel and Syria. And nor will Obama.
US envoy to return to Mideast soon AP Thu Apr 2, 4:30 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US envoy George Mitchell will return soon to the Middle East to help revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks now that a new Israeli government has been formed, an official said Thursday.He's going to the region soon. I don't have dates for you yet, because I don't think they've been worked out, but he's planning to travel to the area,State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters.Wood said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had telephoned new Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to congratulate him on his new job, but he added that the two had not yet decided on when they would meet.The spokesman said the call was brief but would not go into details when asked if the US chief diplomat told Lieberman directly that the United States insisted on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem.What I can tell you about the call is that she looks forward to getting together with him,Wood said.Wood told journalists that the US position has been for quite some time and remains focused on a two-state solution, but did not say whether Clinton repeated this to Lieberman.Our position is well known by all of the players in the Israeli government,he said when pressed on the issue by a journalist.
Netanyahu does not support the two-state solution, saying the Palestinian economy needs to improve first.Lieberman on Wednesday rejected the decision by the preceding Israeli government of Ehud Olmert to relaunch talks with the Palestinians that was taken at a November 2007 conference in Annapolis, Maryland hosted by then president George W. Bush.There is only one document that binds us and it is not the Annapolis conference,Lieberman said. Only the roadmap. The Israeli government and the Knesset (parliament) never adopted Annapolis.The roadmap is an international peace plan launched in 2003 under which Israel bound itself to the principle of a Palestinian state living in peace alongside a secure Israel.Lieberman said Israel will stick by the roadmap but not the Annapolis process which speeded up talks on the fate of Palestinian refugees, the boundaries of a future Palestinian state and the status of Jerusalem.
U.S. says will push hard for Palestinian statehood By Sue Pleming – Thu Apr 2, 3:21 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will push hard for Palestinian statehood despite a new rightist government in Israel but anticipates a rough road ahead, a U.S. official said on Thursday.We're going to be working hard to see what we can do to move the process forward. But we're under no illusions. It's not going to be easy, said State Department spokesman Robert Wood.We have to engage constantly and remind the parties of their obligations and to try to set up a framework, a process for getting us toward that goal of a two-state solution, Wood added, referring to the goal of separate Israeli and Palestinian states, living side by side in peace.
Israel's new foreign minister angered Palestinians and raised the prospect of tension with Washington on Wednesday by saying Israel was not bound by a deal to start negotiations on establishing a Palestinian state.On his first day at the Foreign Ministry, ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman said the U.S.-backed Annapolis declaration of 2007 has no validity,confirming a shift in stance under new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made her first contact with Lieberman on Wednesday, telephoning him from London where she is with President Barack Obama.It was primarily to congratulate him on coming into his new position, but no dates have been set for any type of meeting, said Wood.Wood said U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, former Sen. George Mitchell, is set go to the region soon.He did not comment on whether Clinton had raised U.S. concerns over Lieberman's comments, but said the new Israeli foreign minister was well aware of the U.S. position.We're going to pursue that two-state solution, because we believe it's in the best interests of all the parties in the region,said Wood.Lieberman's anti-Arab rhetoric has particularly alarmed Palestinians as well as Arab leaders in the region. Lieberman says land where many of Israel's 1.5 million Arabs live should be swapped for West Bank Jewish settlements in a peace deal with the Palestinians.
Netanyahu was prime minister from 1997 to 1999 and clashed constantly with the administration of Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton.Netanyahu is expected to visit Washington soon, possibly as early as next month, an Israeli official told Reuters. However, he said no date had been set yet for that visit.
(Editing by Doina Chiacu)
Palestinian kills Israeli teenager with pickax By SEBASTIAN SCHEINER, Associated Press Writer – Thu Apr 2, 12:48 pm ET
BAT AYIN, West Bank – A Palestinian killed an Israeli teenager with a pickax and seriously injured a 7-year-old boy in a rampage through this West Bank Jewish settlement Thursday, posing an early test for the country's new hard-line government.
Israeli media broadcast pictures of the body of 13-year-old Shlomo Nativ, bespectacled with long sidecurls and a large skullcap worn by observant Jews. The images also showed the red pickax on the ground with drops of blood splattered on a road.The attacker escaped the scene and Israeli troops, joined by bearded settlers armed with automatic rifles, were conducting a manhunt in the area. In the nearby Palestinian village of Safa, troops searched houses and rounded up residents in a schoolyard. The military said all roads around the settlement of Bat Ayin were closed.
The settlement is notorious in Israel for being the base of the so-called Bat Ayin Underground,whose members were arrested over a botched 2002 bombing on an Arab girls' school in Jerusalem. The wounded boy's father, a member of the underground, is currently serving a 15-year sentence for his involvement in that bombing attempt.
Avinoam Maymon, a 45-year-old resident of the extremist settlement, said he tried to stop the assailant after the attack, violently struggling with him for a minute or two.He tried to kill me. I grabbed his hand and took the ax and he escaped,he told The Associated Press.He said the attacker fled to a neighboring murderous village.The attacker apparently entered Bat Ayin, located between Jerusalem and the southern West Bank city of Hebron, unhindered. The religious settlers have refused to build a security fence around their community — standard practice in most settlements — saying it would be a sign of weakness.The teenager was quickly buried at a funeral Thursday afternoon, which was closed to the media at the family's request.The attack came a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office and will likely heighten tensions with the Palestinians. The leader of the hawkish Likud party has promised a firm hand against militants and lowered expectations on the prospects for peace.Government spokesman Mark Regev called it a senseless act of brutality against innocents and warned the new leadership will have a zero tolerance policy toward militants.A murky Palestinian militant group calling itself the Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh claimed responsibility for the attack in an e-mail sent to the AP.
The group is named for a Hezbollah mastermind killed in Syria last year in what is believed to have been an assassination by Israeli intelligence. It has claimed a number of past attacks, but Israeli defense officials believe it is likely a name used by other groups to avoid Israeli reprisals.The e-mail said the militant group Islamic Jihad was also involved. The group's spokesman in Gaza would not comment.The new government has already voiced skepticism about peace negotiations in its first days in office.The Palestinian leadership must both in word and in deed too have a zero tolerance policy to this sort of attack to demonstrate its commitment to peace and reconciliation,said Regev, the government spokesman.Netanyahu was elected on a campaign that criticized the previous government's peace negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Since then, Netanyahu has said he will seek peace, but has given few details about his vision for a final agreement. He has specifically refused to endorse the idea of an independent Palestinian state — a key demand of the Palestinians and centerpiece of U.S. diplomacy in the region.On Wednesday, Netanyahu's ultranationalist foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said Israeli concessions to the Palestinians would only invite more war. He also rejected the previous government's peace talks, launched at a U.S.-sponsored conference in 2007. Netanyahu has not commented publicly on Lieberman's statements. But a close Netanyahu ally, Cabinet minister Gilad Erdan, said Thursday that Lieberman's comments largely reflected the position of the prime minister's Likud Party. The appointment of the Lieberman has angered Palestinians and raised international concerns because of his hard-line positions on peace and an election campaign that was widely seen as racist.In Cairo, Egypt's Foreign Ministry called Lieberman's remarks a setback to peace efforts.
Fatah, Hamas adjourn unity talks APR 2,09
CAIRO (AFP) – Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas decided on Thursday to suspend Egyptian-mediated unity talks for three weeks in order to consider new proposals, senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath said.There are new creative proposals and each movement needs to consult its leadership, Shaath said. We decided to resume the negotiations at a later date, sometime between April 21 and 26.Senior delegations from the Islamist group Hamas and the Western-backed Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas had met in Cairo on Wednesday to resume talks on agreeing a unity government.It was the third round of meetings between the long-time rivals since Hamas, winners of 2006 parliamentary elections, seized the Gaza Strip from in a week of fighting in June 2007.Fatah retains control of the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.The factions had agreed to form committees that would resolve their differences and form a unity transitional government that would prepare for general elections early next year.The committees began their work in Cairo last month, but the talks were adjourned after they failed to agree on a new government, with Hamas insisting it would not commit to previous agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.Shaath refused to call the suspension of the talks a failure, saying it was neither a failure nor a success.
The stakes are high after a devastating 22-day war between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip over the new year.In March, countries pledged 4.5 billion dollars in reconstruction aid to Gaza at a conference in Egypt. But many donors, backed by Abbas's government, have said they will not deal with the Hamas authorities in Gaza.
The Middle East Quartet -- Russia, the United States, United Nations and European Union -- has conditioned dealing with Hamas on its recognition of Israel and commitment to past Palestinian-Israeli agreements.Hamas, and some smaller Palestinian factions, say that is unacceptable.
Israel's Lieberman links peace with disarming Hamas AP Thu Apr 2, 9:29 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in remarks published on Thursday it would be difficult to make progress in peace talks with Palestinians as long as armed Hamas Islamists control the Gaza Strip.The Palestinians must first of all confront terror, take control of Gaza and demilitarize Hamas, right-winger Lieberman told Haaretz newspaper. Without these, it will be difficult to move forward,he said.Lieberman angered Palestinians and raised the prospect of tension with Washington on Wednesday by saying that Israel was not bound by an understanding to start negotiations on setting up a Palestinian state.On his first day at the Foreign Ministry, Lieberman said the U.S.-sponsored Annapolis declaration of 2007 has no validity, confirming a shift in Israel's stance toward the Palestinians under new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.The White House responded to those remarks by saying it was committed to working for a two-state solution. (We) understand that we will have frank discussions,a U.S. spokesman added.Under understandings reached at the conference in Annapolis, Maryland, Israel and the Palestinians tried to revive peace negotiations by tackling core issues leading to statehood.Lieberman, a Soviet immigrant denounced as a racist by many Arabs, told Haaretz however that Israel was only obliged to meet its commitments under a road map of 2003, which include removing unauthorized outposts and freezing settlement activity.
The road map, also backed by the United States, calls on Palestinians to stop attacks on Israel before any talks on the final shape of a statehood deal take place.We will conduct talks with the Palestinian Authority, but we want to make sure their checks don't bounce,Lieberman said.Israel undertook obligations regarding the road map and it will honor them, but there must be reciprocity.Lieberman's remarks on Wednesday confirmed that Netanyahu's government has withdrawn from its predecessor's commitment to negotiate on borders and issues such as the status of Jerusalem before the two sides are satisfied road map pledges are met.That could push negotiations on statehood deep into the future. With Gaza in the hands of Hamas Islamists, many doubt Western-backed Palestinian leaders in the West Bank can meet Israeli security conditions for such talks any time soon.Whoever thinks that he will achieve something by way of concessions - no, he will only invite more pressure and more wars, Lieberman told Haaretz.
If you want peace, prepare for war.
Netanyahu has not endorsed statehood for Palestinians, saying instead he wants to focus the talks on shoring up the Palestinian economy and security issues.Lieberman's ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party is the biggest ally of Netanyahu's Likud in the cabinet.(Writing by Joseph Nasr, Editing by Jonathan Wright)
Israel's foreign minister rejects Annapolis deal by Ron Bousso – Wed Apr 1, 10:06 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel is not bound to conduct negotiations on a final settlement with the Palestinians as agreed at a 2007 conference in Annapolis, Maryland, new Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Wednesday.There is only one document that binds us and it is not the Annapolis conference, Lieberman said at a handover ceremony at the foreign ministry a day after being sworn in by parliament.Only the roadmap. The Israeli government and the Knesset (parliament) never adopted Annapolis, he said.We will go exactly according to the roadmap, he said. We will never agree to skip any of the stages -- and there are 48 of them -- and go straight to the last stage on negotiations on a permanent agreement.
We will go exactly according to each stage.
The roadmap is an international peace plan launched in 2003 under which Israel bound itself to the principle of a Palestinian state.The plan calls for Israel and the Palestinians to take a series of steps -- among them a freeze on Jewish settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and an end to violence -- eventually ending with a final peace deal.The Annapolis conference relaunched peace negotiations on the basis of the roadmap, although dozens of rounds of talks between the two sides have produced little visible progress.Lieberman's comments marked a sharp break with his predecessor Tzipi Livni who had led the Israeli delegation at the renewed negotiations.The Palestinians slammed his comments, with a senior aide to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas telling AFP that this minister is an obstacle to peace. He will cause harm to Israel first.The firebrand Lieberman, who has been criticised as a racist for his diatribes against Israeli Arabs, said that concessions would result only in more conflict.Whoever thinks that through concessions he will bring something, no, he will only invite more pressure and more wars,he said.If you want peace, prepare for war. We yearn for peace and we want peace, we've proven that more than any other country in the world.The Oslo process started in '93 and since then 16 years have passed and I can't see it has brought us any closer to a peace deal.
Lieberman also reached out to Egypt, whose leadership has reportedly been angered by his appointment as foreign minister just six months after he said President Hosni Mubarak could go to hell if he continued to avoid visiting Israel.Egypt definitely is an important element and an important state in the Arab world, Lieberman said.It is a force that is stabilising the region. I would be glad to visit Egypt and I would be glad to have Egyptian leaders to visit here and for the foreign minister to visit.It is all based on reciprocity. I see in Egypt an important partner and a stabilising element in the region.
Blair: Mideast peace process in jeopardy.By ROBERT WIELAARD, Associated Press Writer –Wed Apr 1, 9:23 am ET
BRUSSELS – Middle East envoy Tony Blair said Wednesday the peace process was in jeopardy and Israel must fully support the goal of living in peace next to an independent Palestinian state.He said a period of political inactivity caused by Israeli elections and the change of administration in Washington has harmed the peace process. The hiatus coincided with the launch of Israel's Gaza offensive in December to try to halt years of rocket fire at Israeli towns and cripple Hamas.We face a situation of very great jeopardy for the peace process in 2009, said Blair after talks at EU headquarters with Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU external relations commissioner.We need a combination of strong political negotiations toward a two-state solution and major change on the ground.The next six months actually will be completely critical in determining whether this process can move forward or whether it will slip back,he added.He spoke a day after Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's new leader, promised to seek peace with Jerusalem's Arab neighbors but remained silent about a Palestinian state living next to Israel in peace — which has long been the goal of the international community on whose behalf Blair speaks.Netanyahu is observed with trepidation in European capitals. He favors pressing ahead with construction in West Bank settlements. His new foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, is an ultranationalist and several of his cabinet members oppose territorial compromises with Palestinians.Now that we have a new administration in place in the United States, now that we have a new government in place in Israel this is the time when we have to make 2009 a year of progress,said Blair.
