Obama, Netanyahu, Abbas Tussle Over Mideast Peace By TONY KARON – SEPT 23,09
On Wednesday, Sept. 23, President Barack Obama used his first-ever address to the U.N. General Assembly to try and reverse the impression that his ambitious Middle East peace effort had suffered a reversal at the hand of Israel's hawkish Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. I am not naive,Obama told the gathered world leaders. I know this will be difficult. But all of us must decide whether we are serious about peace or whether we only lend it lip service.Many a jaded commentator saw Obama's Tuesday meeting with Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as a symbol of surrender to Netanyahu's refusal of the U.S. demand that Israel halt all construction on land conquered in 1967. Instead, Netanyahu offered a partial and time-limited freeze and appeared to force the President of the United States to back down. For Abbas, the handshake with Netanyahu orchestrated by Obama was viewed as a humiliating climbdown from his refusal to talk to the Israelis until they implemented that settlement freeze. (Read about the photo-op peace process.)
Netanyahu, briefing the Israeli media after the talks, suggested that the Palestinians had also caved in to his demand for a reopening of talks without preconditions on an agenda the two sides would determine in discussions. But Abbas insisted that any talks would be based on the full range of final-status issues established by previous agreements - Netanyahu has publicly ruled out negotiating on two of those issues, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem, which both sides claim as their capital. (See pictures of life in a West Bank settlement.)Abbas appeared to win Obama's backing in the U.N. speech, which made clear that the President has not accepted Netanyahu's position on the precursor issue of a settlement freeze even if he's decided to move on to the final-status negotiations.America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements,the President insisted on Wednesday. That could be read as a response to the damage Obama's credibility has suffered in the Arab world as a result of being forced by Netanyahu to retreat on the settlement issue, which had been widely viewed as a test of Israel's peacemaking bona fides and had been a centerpiece of Obama's Cairo outreach speech in the spring. But there was an even stronger challenge to Netanyahu in Obama's declared plan to relaunch negotiations that address the permanent-status issues: security for Israelis and Palestinians; borders, refugees and Jerusalem.He also spoke of the goal of those negotiations as being the establishment of a viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967.(See a video of Mike Huckabee's three-day trip to Israel.)
While many analysts focused on Tuesday's meeting as an Obama admission of defea on settlements, some were more optimistic. Former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy believes that the Administration's pivot on the issue smartly boxed Netanyahu into a negotiating process the Israeli leader would have preferred to avoid, by turning his own argument against him: if, as Netanyahu insists, settlements should be an issue for negotiation rather than a precondition because their fate will depend on future borders, then why not move straight to final-status negotiations over those borders?
Final-status talks were something Netanyahu had hoped to dodge. Not only does his right-wing coalition government refuse to countenance negotiations over refugees or Jerusalem, but also, the Prime Minister, much of whose political career has been built on resisting the Oslo peace process, has sought to promote incremental improvements in Palestinian life, particularly the economy, over the search for a final two-state agreement. Obama isn't buying it. According to Israeli accounts of Tuesday's meeting, the U.S. President scolded Netanyahu and Abbas, declaring We've had enough talks. We need to end this conflict. There is a window of opportunity, but it might shut.And according to these reports, Obama insisted that the negotiations will not be started from scratch but will instead be based on the previous agreements established through the Oslo process. In other words, Jerusalem and refugees are on the table, and Israel is expected to show up.
Obama is still talking tough, then, but having watched him climb down from his settlement-freeze demand - and the rebuff from moderate Arab states to the President's call for them to make tangible gestures toward normalization of ties with Israel - most analysts are waiting to see what actions back his words. Reports from the talks suggest the Administration will summon the two parties to Washington next month for talks under U.S. auspices on the full gamut of final-status issues. But Netanyahu may have his own ideas and may be buoyed by his success in resisting the settlement-freeze demand. Indeed, the Israeli Prime Minister's domestic popularity has surged as a result of his defiance of Obama. Abbas, however, who had already been reduced to an increasingly marginal figure by the failure of his negotiating efforts over the past decade to win any significant gains for the Palestinians, suffered further political damage by even showing up for the handshake. But even the relatively hawkish Israeli commentator Shmuel Rosner warns that Israel should restrain itself from declaring victory just yet. True, Obama had to draw down his overeager demands from Israel. But it is also true that Netanyahu, not long ago, had to reverse his opposition to a two-state solution and publicly declare that his goal is similar to the one espoused today by Obama. True, Abbas was dragged to the summit only days after insisting that he will not come to any meeting unless settlement construction is frozen first. But it is also true that Netanyahu, the head of the right-wing Likud Party, is one of the first Israeli Prime Ministers to agree to some form of settlement freeze.
Levy, too, believes it is too early to count out Obama's effort. America will have to recognize that in the Israelis and Palestinians, it is dealing with two deeply dysfunctional polities,he argues.The parties simply cannot achieve a peace agreement of their own volition. And the outcome is too important for them, and for America, to leave it at the mercy of the two electorates. So at some point, I think, the Administration is going to find an appropriate moment to present and pursue an American plan for a comprehensive peace.
No meetings between Israelis, Palestinians planned By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer – Wed Sep 23, 6:23 pm ET
NEW YORK – Israelis and Palestinians said Wednesday that their envoys would meet with U.S. officials but not with each other, cementing the impression that a U.S.-sponsored meeting between their leaders had fallen flat.Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said there would be no follow-up session with the Israelis because the two sides hadn't bridged the divides that have prevented them from resuming talks.
It's not happening because we agreed to continue dealing with the Americans until we reach the agreement that will enable us to relaunch the negotiations,Erekat said.The Palestinians refuse to restart talks until Israel freezes settlement construction in territories the Palestinians claim for a future state. They also want talks to restart where they left off before breaking down earlier this year, something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to do.In an NBC interview Wednesday, Netanyahu called Israeli settlements bedroom suburbs of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. And he told the Israeli news web site, Ynet, that under an accord, Israel would not withdraw from all territory it occupied during the 1967 Mideast war.Previous (Israeli) governments did not agree to return to 1967 lines and my government certainly would not agree to do so,he said.Failing to win compromise after months of U.S. mediation, Obama summoned Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to a meeting Tuesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Obama admonished the two men — who met for the first time since Netanyahu became Israel's leader in March — to stop wasting time and to start making peace.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel would dispatch envoys to meet with U.S. officials in Washington, but there were no plans now to meet again with the Palestinians.He said, however, that it was Israel's sincere hope that we will see the restart of direct Israeli-Palestinian talks.Early on in his presidency, Obama had demanded an all-out halt to settlement construction. He had hoped to defuse the historic impediment to peacemaking and encourage the Arab world to make overtures toward the Jewish state that might lead to a normalization of relations.
But Netanyahu refused to freeze construction, agreeing only to slow settlement building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem for a limited time. He said Israel would proceed with already approved plans to build thousands of apartments and would not curb any construction in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 War and later annexed.The international community does not recognize that annexation, nor does it sanction West Bank settlements.Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's hardline foreign minister, told Israel Radio on Wednesday that the Obama meeting was a victory for Israel because it took place in the face of resistance to U.S. pressure by the Netanyahu government.The Israeli government kept its promises to the voter by showing it was not necessary to surrender and give in,he said.Netanyahu has been interviewed multiple times on American television since meeting with Obama and Abbas, using those platforms to argue that Israel needs to continue building to accommodate population growth in existing settlements.The settlers who are there have to live. You can't freeze life,he said.Nearly half a million Israelis have moved to the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the past 42 years.
Continued Israeli settlements in West Bank not legitimate: Obama Wed Sep 23, 2:57 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – The United States does not view continued Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank as legitimate, President Barack Obama told the UN General Assembly Wednesday.We continue to emphasize that America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements (in the West Bank),he said in a maiden speech to the 192-member body.The US leader made the remarks a day after holding inconclusive talks in New York with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.Saeb Erakat, chief Palestinian negotiator, welcomed Obama's comments.We are encouraged and highly appreciate President Obama's statements on settlements being illegal and calling to an end of the occupation that started in 1967,he told AFP.
Netanyahu did not react to Obama's comments on settlements.I commend this important speech of Obama and his call to renew the peace process without preconditions,the Israeli premier however said.I commend his unequivocal support of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people.This rapprochement between the US and Israeli viewpoints is the result of many contacts we have had, and of course the expression of good will by both sides,he added.The Obama administration has demanded a complete freeze to Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, land the Palestinians want to turn into a future state. But Israel has so far balked.Tuesday, Abbas also made clear that Israel must halt settlement construction.We insisted on the need for Israel to respect its commitments, notably an end to settlement construction in all its forms, including natural growth,Abbas told Palestinian journalists.Obama meanwhile told the Israeli and Palestinian leaders Tuesday to stop stalling and open talks on a comprehensive deal to end an endless cycle of conflict and suffering.Final status issues include the fate of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the borders of an eventual Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem and the right of return of Palestinian refugees.
Israeli FM: Summit a victory for settlement stand By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer – Wed Sep 23, 9:05 am ET
JERUSALEM – Israel's foreign minister said Wednesday that the summit of Israeli, U.S. and Palestinian leaders proved Israel could successfully fend off international pressure to freeze West Bank settlement construction.Palestinian officials expressed disappointment with Tuesday's meeting in New York. The U.S. appeared to back down from a demand, expressed forcefully in recent months, that Israel cease all construction in West Bank settlements.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in New York with President Barack Obama and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. It was Netanyahu's first meeting with Abbas since taking office in March. Beyond a cool handshake, there were no signs of progress toward the U.S. goal of restarting peace talks.The Palestinians have said they will not resume negotiations until Israel halts all construction in settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians claim both areas and the Gaza Strip, all captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as parts of a future independent state.Speaking to Israel Radio, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the fact that the meeting took place showed Israel's firm stand against a settlement freeze was effective.This government has shown that you don't always need to get flustered, to surrender and give in, Lieberman told Israel Radio. What's important for me is that this government kept its promises to the voter ... and the fact is that this meeting happened.Obama and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had previously demanded a full halt to construction in the settlements.
But at Tuesday's meeting, Obama did not explicitly call for a settlement freeze, and George Mitchell, the White House Mideast envoy, said afterward that the administration does not see a resolution of the settlement showdown as a precondition for resuming negotiations.Palestinian officials said they were disappointed Obama had softened his stance and urged him to reassess his position.
This shows the negative intentions of the Israeli government,said Jibril Rajoub, a top official in Abbas' Fatah movement.The Americans should review their policies toward cooperating with the Israeli government, because its actions pose a danger to regional stability, are against the American government's policies and contradict international law.Israeli media largely portrayed the summit as a futile exercise, while acknowledging Netanyahu's success in rebuffing the Obama administration's previous pressure on settlements.There has never been such a hollow ceremony,Nahum Barnea, a prominent Israeli columnist, wrote in the Yediot Ahronot daily.While Netanyahu might feel that he won,he should remember the lesson that the Middle East gives all its winners: In this region, the short-term winner loses in the long term, Barnea wrote.Seeking to simultaneously appease the U.S. and his hardline coalition government, Netanyahu has agreed to slow settlement construction for a limited time. He has said construction will continue on some 3,000 housing units, most of which are already being built.
Palestinian PM cites support for statehood plan By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 22, 9:21 pm ET
NEW YORK – Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said in an interview Tuesday that he has won broad international support for his plan to ready the Palestinians for statehood within two years.However, Fayyad sidestepped the question of whether the Palestinians would unilaterally declare statehood at the end of that period if a peace deal with Israel is not in place. He said that decision would have to made by the Palestine Liberation Organization and others when the time comes.With peace efforts deadlocked, Fayyad's two-year plan to build up and reform governing institutions may well offer the Palestinians the only practical prescription for moving closer to statehood.Israel and the Palestinians remain far apart on what it would take to resume peace talks. The gaps were highlighted during Tuesday's first meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, hosted in New York by President Barack Obama.While Netanyahu and Abbas faced off at a hotel in midtown Manhattan, Fayyad lobbied for his plan in a meeting with donor countries on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.Donors have funneled billions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians over the years, and Tuesday's meeting was meant to assess the aid program and make up pledging shortfalls.The huge sums have been less effective than donors had hoped, in part because they were spent to soften the economic damage stemming from Israeli restrictions on Palestinian trade and movement, rather than on development projects.
Fayyad's program, unveiled a month ago, proposes beefing up or reforming government ministries and institutions of the Palestinian Authority, the self-rule government in the West Bank. The plan also envisions several major projects, such as an international airport.The West Bank remains under Israeli military occupation and the Gaza Strip is controlled by the Islamic militant group Hamas. But Fayyad said this should not keep Palestinians from working for their state.Part of what this is intended to do is to break that psychological barrier associated with having ... statehood being talked about for so long now, with it not happening,he said.However, Fayyad would not say how he expects to get around major obstacles to his vision, such as Hamas rule in Gaza or the need to get Israeli approval for major projects.
Fayyad was appointed by Abbas as prime minister two years ago.Since then, the Western-educated Fayyad, a respected economist, has ended vigilante rule in former militant hotspots and cracked down on Hamas' West Bank operations.In recent months, the Palestinian economy in the West Bank has seen a modest upturn, after years of shrinking, in part because of an easing of Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement and the influx of foreign aid. The economy in Gaza has been crippled by a two-year border blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Hamas takeover.
Obama warns Israel, Palestinians to move on talks by Gavin Rabinowitz – Tue Sep 22, 7:30 pm ET
NEW YORK (AFP) – US President Barack Obama on Tuesday curtly told Israeli and Palestinian leaders to stop stalling and open talks on a comprehensive deal to end an endless cycle of conflict and suffering.Simply put, it is past time to talk about starting negotiations,Obama said, his frustration evident, as he gathered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas for a three-way summit.Obama said final status talks on forming a Palestinian state must begin, and begin soon,in his most personal intervention yet in Middle East peace making, which he has put at the center of his foreign policy agenda.The US president officiated as his guests, meeting for the first time since Netanyahu took office in March, performed an awkward handshake for the cameras before the talks at New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel.Obama announced that he had asked both sides to send negotiators back to Washington next week for more discussions on relaunching the stalled dialogue to be brokered by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell.He directed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to report back on how the talks were going by mid-October.
All sides had downplayed prospects of movement in the summit, so it was no surprise that there was little obvious evidence of progress.Both parties seek the relaunch of negotiations as soon as possible although there are differences on how to proceed, Mitchell said.Abbas called on Israelis to impose a freeze on settlement construction, which the Palestinians have made a condition of going back to the table.We insisted on the need for Israel to respect its commitments, notably an end to settlement construction in all its forms, including natural growth,Abbas said told Palestinian reporters.Netanyahu called on the Palestinians to drop their demands, saying it was holding up progress.It's precisely those preconditions on negotiations that have stymied our progress so far, Netanyahu said in an interview later with ABC news.Everybody said they're not placing preconditions. I'm not and I hope the Palestinians don't. I think we have to move on with the business of peace, he said.Despite the apparent deadlock, Obama called on both sides to show urgency.
My message to these two leaders is clear,he said.We have to summon the will to break the deadlock that has trapped generations of Israelis and Palestinians in an endless cycle of conflict and suffering.Obama said Netanyahu's hawkish government must show real action on halting settlement construction and said Palestinians need to stop anti-Israeli incitement and move forward with negotiations.He also appealed to Arab states which have so far not acted on his request to make conciliatory gestures to entice Israel to the negotiating table. Final status issues include the fate of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the borders of an eventual Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem and the right of return of Palestinian refugees.Obama, who vowed, unlike ex-president George W. Bush, to engage in the Middle East early in his presidency, had hoped a deal on opening talks would already be sealed after exhaustive diplomacy by Mitchell.Facing a flurry of challenging problems at home, and a clutch of brewing foreign crises, the president is taking something of a risk with his fungible political capital by holding the meeting at all.Some observers, key members of the Bush administration included, argue that the symbolism of the presidency should only be brought to bear when a critical moment is in sight -- not merely as a way of kick-starting talks.But Obama's aides say that only with consistent, focused US engagement at a high level will Israelis and Palestinians ever move towards a consistent process of dialogue.
Shiite financier investments embarrasses Hezbollah By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 22, 6:00 pm ET
TOURA, Lebanon – A Mideast version of the Bernie Madoff scandal is threatening to tarnish Hezbollah's reputation in Lebanon for being incorruptible, and the powerful Shiite militant movement faces calls to bail out small investors to keep its position from being undercut.Hundreds of Lebanese sold land or drained their retirement savings and handed over hundreds of millions of dollars to Salah Ezzedine, a Shiite businessman with connections to Hezbollah.The anti-Israeli Hezbollah is on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations and maintains the strongest military force in Lebanon. For its Shiite followers, however, it is seen as a trusted quasi-government that provides social services and aid. The group gets substantial funding from Iran and paid out millions to rebuild the Shiite heartland in south Lebanon after a devastating 2006 war with Israel.Hezbollah has said it had nothing to do with the alleged swindle and has so far resisted pressure to rescue the investors.Nevertheless, many investors put their trust in Ezzedine, principally because of the financier's connections to Hezbollah and because of his reputation as a pious, respectable Shiite. Ezzedine's investment company promised as much as 40 percent in annual returns, according to residents of this southern Lebanese village.
Ezzedine and his partner, Youssef Faour, have been arrested on suspicion of cheating investors out of perhaps up to $1 billion, prosecutors say. Earlier this month, they were charged with fraudulent embezzlement, a crime punishable by 15 years in prison. Alleged victims included well-off Shiites but also smaller investors who sold land or pulled out savings to bundle the cash and give it to Ezzedine.Lebanese are comparing to the swindle by Madoff, now serving a 150-year prison sentence for masterminding a multibillion-dollar scheme that burned thousands of investors.
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah earlier this month denied the group had any connection with the financier. A parliament member from Hezbollah reportedly lost money with Ezzedine and is suing him — a sign, the group's supporters say, that it, too, was victimized.Still, Hezbollah is trying to ward off any blow to its status among loyalists. Nasrallah spoke recently by video link to a group of investors in the south to hear their complaints and reassure them, although he made no promises of compensation, according to an investor who lost money, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the meeting.The losses among people of all economic levels have stunned Shiites, who hold an abiding faith in Hezbollah's integrity and incorruptibility. While many still vow loyalty to the movement, they feel it should support its followers and pay compensation.That is what we hope, Wajih Shour, an investor from Toura, told The Associated Press. He said he paid several installments — including one of $150,000 — into the scheme. He refused to say the total amount he invested with Ezzedine but showed two checks worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that were given to him by one of Ezzedine's companies as a guarantee on his investment. The checks bounced because there was no money in the accounts, he said.The 47-year-old Ezzedine was well-known for his religious works and charity in the southern port city of Tyre and surrounding Shiite villages. He had personal connections with Hezbollah figures — as any major businessman in the south would. He owns the Dar Al-Hadi Publishing House, one of Lebanon's most prominent producers of Shiite religious books that also prints books written by Hezbollah officials, and the children's TV channel Al-Hadi.Among his charitable works was largely financing a giant mosque in the center of his hometown of Maaroub. A sign at its entrance says it was inaugurated in 2005 under the auspices of Nasrallah. A nearby municipal stadium was also financed by Ezzedine and was named Stadium of the Resistance and Liberation Martyrs.Judicial officials said Ezzedine had major business interests, particularly in oil and iron industries, in Eastern Europe and suffered substantial losses when oil prices fell last year. They added that Ezzedine tried to make up for his losses by taking money from Lebanese investors. They have not detailed what Ezzedine did with the money or where the funds are now.In Maaroub, a town of about 4,500 people, no one was home at the financier's large villa surrounded by a garden. Residents refused to say anything bad about Ezzedine, insisting he is a decent man.Rida Dbouki, 75, has known Ezzedine since he was a little boy and describes him as a man who did all the good for this village.Asked about the losses, the grocer said, We don't know how all this happened.
Another Maaroub resident, Hussein Khalil Khamis, 78, recounted how Ezzedine paid for his wife's diabetes and high blood pressure medications that he could not afford — amounting to $200 a month.Only one man in Maaroub, who identified himself only as Abu Ali because of the sensitivity of discussing the scheme in Ezzedine's hometown, acknowledged he invested a small amount of money, was promised 40 percent in annual return and never got it back. He would not say how much he invested. He said dozens of residents sold plots of land or took their retirement funds and invested them.
Investors in Maaroub and the nearby town of Toura told the AP that those who wanted to invest $100,000 and above could go directly to Ezzedine's office in nearby Tyre. Those who had amounts less than that gathered their money and gave them to a person they trusted to invest it for them.Fadi Ajami, owner of a hardware shop in Toura, said he and a friend each invested around $500,000, plus another $3 million bundled from dozens of his neighbors. Now he's trying to pay them back from his own funds, returning $390,000 so far after selling property and using his savings.Ajami proudly proclaims himself a Hezbollah supporter — his office is decorated with pictures of its leaders, including Nasrallah and its military commander, Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed by a car bomb in Syria last year.What really hurts is that those people (Ezzedine and Faour) used their connections with Hezbollah as a cover to gain people's trust. Hezbollah had nothing to do with them,Ajami said.
Palestinians want support for WTO observer status bid Tue Sep 22, 11:20 am ET
GENEVA (AFP) – The Palestinian territories are seeking support in their bid for observer status at the World Trade Organisation, a first step towards full membership, the Palestinian economics minister said Tuesday.We are here to lobby and request a status of an observership in the general council and all associated bodies of the WTO. We do that because we dream of an eventual full accession to WTO, said Bassim Khoury.We believe this is needed because this could be an engine for reform and an engine of statebuilding,he added.Khoury said meetings with 32 diplomats from the United States, European Union, China and Japan, have yielded very nice feedback to the Palestinians' bid.Now it is time to see if the music translates into action or only stays as music,he added.With the exception of the Vatican, observers have to start accession negotiations within five years of gaining observer status.All 153 members of the WTO would have to approve an accession bid before a country can join the trade body as a full member.
Will Abbas's rising clout be hurt by Netanyahu meeting? By Ilene R. Prusher – Tue Sep 22, 5:00 am ET
Jerusalem – Heading into a US-brokered meeting Tuesday morning with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is facing deep pessimism from his own people about the prospect of peace – and a severe attack on his credibility by Hamas.President Abbas's popularity among Palestinians had risen significantly in recent months, potentially giving him more clout as a negotiator. But scathing criticism from Hamas over his agreement to meet Mr. Netanyahu on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York could eat into those gains.In a statement sent to reporters in Gaza, Hamas said it was truly shocked that Mr. Abbas accepted President Barack Obama's invitation for the talks, given that Abbas has insisted for months that he would not meet Netanyahu without a freeze on settlement expansion in the West Bank.This means that Abbas has yielded to Israel and the US and retreats from his stance,said Hamas, calling Abbas's decision a submission to the Zionists.The Islamic movement, which has controlled the Gaza Strip for over two years, called on Abbas to immediately stop his political rush and stop yielding to Zionist dictations,adding that he should first achieve Palestinian unity.A Palestinian reconciliation deal to bring Hamas and Fatah together has remained elusive and Abbas is taking a risk by agreeing to a high-profile summit in the absence of the settlement freeze sought by Obama since his June 4 policy speech in Cairo. The Washington Times on Tuesday reported that the Israelis had offered a temporary freeze for six to nine months that would exclude 2,500 units already approved for construction, but such a deal has not been made public and could not immediately be verified.
Abbas gained in polls against Hamas leader
But recent polls have given Abbas a reason to believe that most Palestinians are behind him and will likely accept his going out on a limb to talk to Israel in the name of achieving Palestinian statehood.Abbas is certainly stronger, and the public gives him more support now than it did for some time. But the fact that he feels stronger is giving him courage that he didn't have before, and because of that, I think he'll be tougher vis-a-vis the US and Israel,says Khalil Shikaki, director of The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), a Ramallah-based polling organization.He'd been accused of being a weak president, but now that he has legitimacy and has Fatah behind him, perhaps he feels he can stand up to the American and Israelis and say no to them.PCPSR found in its most recent poll – conducted in mid-August – that support for Abbas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) he leads was rising while support for Hamas was sinking. Since the organization's previous poll in May, there has been a significant widening in the gap between the level of support for Abbas and for Ismail Haniyeh, the former prime minister in a joint Hamas-Fatah government that dissolved after Hamas ousted Fatah from Gaza in 2007. Specifically, 52 percent supported Abbas and 38 percent supported Mr. Haniyeh in the most recent poll. Their previous support figures were 49 percent and 44 percent, respectively.The organization says the shift is likely due to the popular Fatah congress held in Bethlehem in August and improving security conditions in the West Bank. There is also a noticeable decrease in public perception of the existence of corruption in PA institutions under Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad,the PCPSR said in its report on the August survey.The survey included Palestinians from Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, and their numbers roughly reflected the proportion of Palestinians in each of those areas. All surveys were done in person.
Palestinian opinion hard to categorize
But looking at the bigger picture, there's an overwhelming pessimism among Palestinians about the ability of their leaders to get to a peace deal with Israel. Sixty-nine percent of those polled, including West Bankers and Gazans, said they believe that the chances for establishing an independent Palestinian state next to Israel in the next five years are slim or nonexistent.Moreover, some of the positions that Israel and the US are asking Abbas to adopt will be hard to sell to the Palestinian public. For example, only about half of Palestinians say they will accept a mutual recognition of Israel as the state for the Jewish people and Palestine as the state for Palestinian people. A majority of those polled – 61 percent – say they oppose a peace deal based on the Clinton parameters and the Geneva Initiative.The reference is to talks under former President Bill Clinton in 1999 and 2000 and to an unofficial blueprint for peace developed by prominent Israelis and Palestinians, including former negotiators in the Oslo peace process.
Both drafts presented similar solutions to a variety of difficult issues, including Jerusalem, refugees, and borders. A large number of Palestinians expressed opposition to those plans because of their dislike of solutions presented on individual issues. For example, only 24 percent of Palestinians say they would support the idea of a Palestinian state with no army, a drop from the 36 percent figure when the poll was first held in 2003.The polls show how hard it is to categorize the Palestinian public's views. On some matters, Palestinians remains closer to the viewpoint of Hamas than that of Abbas, explains Dr. Shikaki, referring to the Palestinian leader by his nom de guerre, Abu Mazen. On the question of violence, most Palestinians are with the Hamas position and not Abu Mazen's,adds Shikaki.They believe that violence has been helpful in achieving their national rights. But on the issue of two-state solution, they do take a position that is closer to Abu Mazen.
Arabs criticize Obama, too
Mr. Obama has come under fire from Arab commentators for pressuring Abbas to attend the meeting despite US envoy George Mitchell's failure to secure promises of a settlement freeze from Israel.Obama bent down to all of Netanyahu's pressures and withdrew from the battle of the settlements that he had engaged in the last period, wrote Abed-El-Bari Utwan, the longtime editor in chief of the Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper in London. Obama put [Abbas] in an embarrassing situation by making him attend a meeting with Netanyahu after having announced to his people that he would only do such a thing after Israel commits itself to the settlement freeze.They left Philadelphia to live in the West Bank? The Allons simply wanted more space at the right price. Read about how they and other Israeli settlers see their decision to live at the center of a global dispute.
Carter says Israel must stop building settlements By SUE LINDSEY, Associated Press Writer – Mon Sep 21, 10:23 pm ET
HARRISONBURG, Virginia – Israel must stop building settlements in the Palestinian territories if peace is ever to be achieved in the Middle East, former President Jimmy Carter said Monday night as he received an award at a Virginia university for his humanitarian efforts.As President Barack Obama has made clear, the key factor that prevents peace is the continuing building of Israeli settlements in Palestine, driven by a determined minority of Israelis who desire to occupy and colonize east Jerusalem and the West Bank,Carter said.Carter, a Nobel Peace laureate, spoke to a crowd of 6,500 as he and former first lady Rosalynn Carter received an award from James Madison University's Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence.Carter, 84, who helped bring peace between Egypt and Israel with the Camp David Accords when he was president in the late 1970s, has maintained a strong interest in the Middle East. He said he has visited the region three times within the past year.Carter said he's convinced that withdrawal of Israeli forces from Arab territories will dramatically reduce any threats to Israel.All 22 Arab countries have offered diplomatic recognition and full trade and commerce if Israel will withdraw from occupied territories,he said.
And withdrawal is necessary, Carter said.
The alternative to two states is one nation in the same area, within which Arabs will soon comprise a clear majority,he said.This will mean the end of a Jewish state or else an apartheid system within which Palestinians are dominated and deprived of equal rights.Carter and fellow Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu of South Africa were among a delegation of veteran statesmen who visited Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip last month to support Israelis and Palestinians seeking peace.In June, he went to Gaza and met with leaders of Hamas, which the United States, European Union and Israel have refused to deal with directly because they consider it a terror group.Tutu was the first recipient of the James Madison center's nonviolence award in 2007, and the Carters are the second. It was presented on the United Nations' International Day of Peace.Sushil Mittal, director of the Gandhi Center, said the award recognizes the Carters' commitment to humanitarian efforts.They understand and exemplify the importance of tolerance and compassion for other nations and people from different backgrounds,he said in a statement.After leaving the White House in 1981, the Carters established a nonprofit center in Atlanta dedicated to resolving conflicts and promoting health worldwide.
Israel blames Palestinians for Mitchell's peace failure Sat Sep 19, 1:40 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel on Saturday blamed the Palestinian Authority for the failure of US envoy George Mitchell to reach a deal for the resumption of stalled peace talks.
The Palestinian Authority is the one that is preventing the resumption of the peace process by making conditions that it has not made in the past,foreign ministry spokesman Yossi Levi said.Mitchell wrapped up a mission to the Middle East on Friday after failing to secure an Israeli freeze on settlement expansion to pave the way for the resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks stalled since December.He was hoping to secure the deal and arrange for a meeting at next week's UN General Assembly between Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama.Palestinians have been demanding a halt to Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, including annexed Arab east Jerusalem, as a condition for resuming talks with Israel.Since the new government was formed five months ago, Israel has always said it was ready to resume, without preconditions, the peace process and meetings with Palestinian Authority representatives,Levi said in a statement.Earlier on Saturday, Abbas had blamed Israel for Mitchell's failure to make any breakthrough, during separate talks in Egypt with President Hosni Mubarak and in Jordan with King Abdullah II.The road is now blocked,Abbas told reporters in Cairo, adding that the onus was now on Israel.
There is no more work (for Mitchell) with the Western or Palestinian sides because we are complying with all our duties. The focus has to be on the Israeli side,he said.Abbas and King Abdullah II later urged the international community to intervene and put pressure on Israel, saying in a statement released by the palace that settlements are the key obstacle to achieving progress.The international community must bear its responsibilities and prevent Israel from undermining the efforts that are under way to push for serious and effective negotiations,the statement said.
During the meeting in Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba, Abbas and the Jordanian king also insisted that the United States must have a leading role in trying to revive the peace process.Mitchell had been aiming to secure an Israeli moratorium on settlement construction that would be acceptable to the Palestinians and enable the resumption of peace talks.Over the past weeks, Netanyahu has rebuffed repeated US calls to freeze settlement construction.Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been frozen since December when Israel launched a devastating offensive against the Gaza Strip.
Abbas meets Mubarak after Mitchell trip Sat Sep 19, 11:17 am ET
CAIRO (Reuters) – Failure to agree a settlement freeze inhibits the resumption of peace negotiations with Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told Egypt's Hosni Mubarak on Saturday, according to state media.Abbas visited Cairo days after U.S. envoy George Mitchell and less than a week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stopped by to brief Mubarak and other Egyptian officials on efforts to resume stalled peace talks.Mitchell returned to Washington on Friday with little to show for his shuttle diplomacy between Jerusalem and Arab capitals.Israel has blamed Abbas for the impasse, saying Palestinian negotiators showed no flexibility while Israel did.Netanyahu, whose right-wing cabinet includes strong pro-settler elements, had offered a nine-month freeze on building in the West Bank -- longer than the six months Israel previously indicated it would consider, but less than the year-long pause Mitchell had sought.Abbas has said he would not agree to renewed negotiations with Israel unless it agreed to a total freeze on settlement expansion and stressed that the United States must push Israel to comply with the 2003 road map call for a cessation of all settlement-building.An Abbas spokesman said the Cairo meeting -- which lasted an hour and a half -- was called to coordinate Arab and Palestinian positions ahead of the United Nations General Assembly, which starts in New York on Tuesday.The participants, which included Egypt's foreign minister and intelligence chief and the Palestinian Authority's chief negotiator, also discussed intra-Palestinian developments, Egypt's state-run news agency MENA said.Negotiations could not resume because Israel would not consider including Jerusalem in any settlement freeze, nor would it stop building in settlements to accommodate natural growth, MENA quoted Abbas as saying.Some 300,000 Israelis live in settlements in the occupied West Bank, and another 200,000 live in Arab East Jerusalem, areas home to around 2.5 million Palestinians seeking independent statehood. Israel has annexed East Jerusalem as part of its capital in a move not recognized internationally.(Writing by Alastair Sharp).
US raps UN Gaza report By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press – Fri Sep 18, 5:09 pm ET
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on Friday sharply criticized a U.N. report alleging Israeli war crimes in its Gaza war earlier this year, ending nearly a week of muted reaction to findings already rejected by Israel.The State Department said the conclusions of a U.N. commission headed by South African justice Richard Goldstone were unfair to Israel and did not fully address the role of the militant Palestinian group Hamas in the conflict. And it said the U.S. objected to a recommendation that alleged crimes be referred to the International Criminal Court.
Although the report addresses all sides of the conflict, its overwhelming focus is on the actions of Israel,spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.While the report makes overly sweeping conclusions of fact and law with respect to Israel, its conclusions regarding Hamas' deplorable conduct and its failure to comply with international humanitarian law during the conflict are more general and tentative,he added.The report, released on Tuesday, faulted Israel for civilian deaths in Gaza, saying it used disproportionate force in the offensive. About 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the three-week conflict. Israel charged that Hamas was to blame, saying they placed rocket launchers and forces in crowded neighborhoods.
The report also called Hamas' firing of rockets at Israeli civilians a war crime.
On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the findings, saying Israel's security forces were exercising their right to self-defense. The United States had until Friday been largely silent, limiting its response to expressions of concern about unspecified content and the panel's mandate.That mandate was given to Goldstone and his colleagues by the U.N. Human Rights Council earlier this year, before President Barack Obama decided to end the Bush administration's policy of snubbing the body and join it.Kelly said Friday that the United States wanted to keep discussion of the report within the council and had very serious concerns about a recommendation that it be raised at other bodies, including the International Criminal Court.We note in particular that Israel has the democratic institutions to investigate and prosecute abuses and we encourage it to use those institutions,he said.U.S. officials are also concerned that Arab states and others might attempt to raise the report at next week's United Nations General Assembly session. Kelly said it was important for the world to remain focused on trying to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.We hope efforts related to the Middle East at the Human Rights Council and other international bodies will look to the future and how we can support the goal of a two-state solution,he said.
