Israeli troops kill Hamas militant in West Bank By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer - SEPT 17,10 11AM
JERUSALEM – Israeli troops killed a Hamas militant on Friday during a raid in the West Bank, where violence has increased since a new round of Mideast peace talks began this month.Hamas vowed to avenge the death of Iyad Abu Shilbaya, 37, who the Islamic militant group said was a local leader of its armed wing in the northern West Bank town of Tulkarm.The blood of our martyr will be a curse, said Hamas military spokesman Abu Obeida. He blamed both Israel and Hamas' rivals, the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, for the killing.The Islamic group vowed to avenge the militant's death. Gunmen from Hamas, which opposes the peace talks and has threatened to use violence to derail them, killed four Israeli settlers in a Sept. 1 shooting just as the talks were getting under way.Israel's military said soldiers were trying to arrest Abu Shilbaya in Tulkarm when he ran toward the soldiers, ignoring orders to halt. The military said troops feared he had a weapon and shot him.The man's brother, Mutasim Abu Shilbaya, said troops burst into his brother's house around 3 a.m. and killed him in his bedroom. A floor mat in the room and the bed were stained with blood.Israel's military said Abu Shilbaya was wanted for recent activity but provided no further details. A Hamas statement said Abu Shilbaya served several stints in Israeli and Palestinian Authority jails. It said he was responsible for leading several militant attacks, but gave no other information.
Following Abu Shilbaya's death, Israeli soldiers and Palestinian Authority forces on high alert set up separate checkpoints on roads leading to Tulkarem, halting cars and searching people's documents.Still, some 3,000 Hamas loyalists gathered to march in Abu Shilbaya's funeral, waving the group's green flag and chanting revenge, revenge! It was the largest — and boldest — gathering of Hamas supporters in the West Bank in three years. Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, pushing out loyalists of the Palestinian Authority, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas. Following the Gaza takeover, Abbas' Palestinian Authority consolidated its rule in the West Bank, although Israel retains overall security in the West Bank through its military occupation.Though the Palestinian Authority and Israel share Hamas as a common enemy and have cracked down on the militant group, the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, condemned Abu Shilbaya's killing.(It) increases the weakness of the credibility of the peace process, which is already shaken,Fayyad said in a statement.
Israel says Palestinian forces are still unable to assume full control for security.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held a second round of peace talks this week, accompanied by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.The talks face a major obstacle at the end of the month, when a slowdown in Israeli settlement construction is set to expire. The Palestinians say they will halt the talks if settlement construction resumes in full, and the U.S. has urged Israel to extend the slowdown.There are signs the sides might be close to a compromise that would allow the talks to continue, but the leaders still need to reach agreement on the thorniest issues dividing them. Those include the route of a border between Israel and a future Palestinian state, the fate of Palestinian refugees and a formula for sharing Jerusalem.Associated Press writers Naser Ishtayeh in Nablus, West Bank, Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, and Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.
Obama's Mideast envoy: US supports Lebanese army
SEPT 17,10
BEIRUT – The Obama administration's envoy for Middle East peace says the U.S. supports Lebanon's armed forces.George Mitchell spoke Friday after meeting Lebanese President Michel Suleiman in Beirut.In August, several U.S. lawmakers froze $100 million in military aid to Lebanon after expressing concerns the weapons could be turned on Israel and that Hezbollah may have influence over the Lebanese army.But the Obama administration has made clear it wants the military aid to continue in the interest of America's national security and Mideast stability.Mitchell said Friday he assured senior leaders in Lebanon that the U.S. has a strong desire to maintain a close relationship with the Lebanese Armed Forces.
Israel says it won't extend settlement curbs
by Marius Schattner SEPT 17,10
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel reiterated on Friday its refusal to to extend curbs on settlement building that expire this month, despite US pressure and Palestinian threats to walk out of peace talks.The prime minister has not changed his position on this issue, there is no question of extending the moratorium, a senior government official told AFP, asking not to be named.The 10-month measure to curb construction of settler homes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank concludes at the end of this month.The decision not to renew the partial moratorium, which does not cover annexed east Jerusalem, was taken this week by the Forum of Seven top cabinet ministers, according to the daily Israel Hayom, which is close to the government.The decision was communicated to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was in the Middle East this week in a bid to push forward the peace process, the newspaper said.The issue of settlements is among the thorniest in Middle East peace negotiations, which Israel and the Palestinians restarted this month after a 20-month hiatus.
The two sides remain deeply divided on the renewal of settlement construction, a senior Palestinian official said after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Clinton met for two days of trilateral talks this week.The official said the negotiations held in Egypt and Jerusalem had failed to resolve the row which threatens to derail the peace process.Abbas told Netanyahu during the talks that he would walk out of the negotiations if Israel does not renew the moratorium, according to an aide.In a bid to resolve the row, the Americans have suggested a three-month extension in which the two sides could agree on borders, which could bring a final halt to settlement on the lands of the future Palestinian state,a Palestinian official said.The official added that US negotiators wanted a complete halt to settlements while Israel was insisting on continuing to build in major settlement blocs it hopes to keep in any final peace accord.The killing Friday of a local commander of the Ezzedine al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas in the West Bank, highlighted the continuing tension in the region despite the renewed peace efforts.Israeli soldiers shot dead Iyad Shilbaya, 38, during a raid on the Nur Shams refugee camp in the northern West Bank.The assassination is a dangerous escalation that further weakens the credibility of an already shaky political process,Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad said in a statement.Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip and is committed to the destruction of Israel, called Shilbaya a martyr.The murder was the fruit of the negotiations," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
US envoy George Mitchell was meanwhile in Beirut to meet with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman as part of the renewed push by Washington to broker a comprehensive Middle East peace accord.He travelled to south Lebanon, where he visited the headquarters of the United Nations peacekeeping force deployed there. Asked by AFP whether Mitchell's discussions with senior peacekeeping officials addressed the sensitive issue of Hezbollah's weapons, deputy spokesman Andrea Tenenti said they concerned only the issues related to activities on the ground.Israel, which fought a devastating war with Hezbollah in 2006, has repeatedly accused the Shiite militant group of stockpiling weapons. Syria and Lebanon are still technically at war with Israel and Washington is hoping to convince both states to enter into negotiations with the Jewish state and to support the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Mitchell travelled to Lebanon from neighbouring Syria.In Damascus, he said a peace deal meant an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, between Israel and Syria and between Israel and Lebanon and the full normalisation of relations between Israel and its neighbours.
Israeli rabbi no longer damning Palestinians
– Fri Sep 17, 6:02 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Three weeks after saying God should smite the Palestinian people, the spiritual head of a religious party in Israel's ruling coalition sent out a conciliatory message wishing a long life to Arab leaders involved in the peace process, media reported on Friday.I bless the leaders and the people -- Egyptian, Jordanian and Palestinian -- involved in the peace process, Rabbi Ovadia Josef, 90, wrote in a letter to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.I wish them long life and success,he wrote in the letter, a copy of which was printed in the Haaretz daily.My position has been known for decades on the importance of achieving peace, said Josef, the spiritual head of the Shas party, a member of the center-right government coalition.The rabbi had stirred angry reactions, including from the US administration, when he damned Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and his people ahead of the September 2 Washington summit that restarted the peace negotiations after a 20-month hiatus.May all the nasty people who hate Israel, like Abu Mazen, vanish from our world,Josef had said in a sermon, using the nickname of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
Mideast talks still under threat after Clinton visit
By Jeffrey Heller – Thu Sep 16, 5:23 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ended three days of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Thursday with no visible sign of progress on breaking a deadlock over building in West Bank settlements.The Palestinians reiterated a threat to leave the nascent negotiations if settlement construction were to resume when a moratorium expires on September 30, and Israel reaffirmed it would not extend the freeze, even for a limited period.On another possible peace track, U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus and said Washington's focus on an Israeli-Palestinian deal would not deflect it from pushing for an Israeli-Syrian accord.In an interview with Israel's Channel 10 television, Clinton said it would be extremely useful if Israel agreed to a limited extension of the 10-month, partial settlement freeze.But officials close to the talks said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had rejected a proposal to extend the moratorium by three months.At a meeting of the Arab League in Cairo, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki restated the Palestinian threat to leave the negotiations if one settlement is built after the end of the freeze.Wrapping up a round of negotiations that began in Egypt on Tuesday, Clinton held talks in Jordan with King Abdullah after meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city Ramallah.
Today, His Majesty and I discussed ongoing negotiations and I expressed my confidence that Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas can make the difficult decisions necessary to resolve all of the core issues within one year, she told a news conference in Amman.Those issues include the borders of a Palestinians state and the future of settlements, Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.
COMPROMISE
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told Israel's Channel 1 TV he had raised the idea with Netanyahu to keep the moratorium in place for another three months, hoping to buy time for negotiators to agree on the borders of a Palestinian state.Israel has said such a deal could entail a land swap under which it would keep major settlement blocs in the West Bank, territory it captured from Jordan in a 1967 Middle East war.
Officials close to the talks said the United States, which launched the face-to-face negotiations in Washington on September 2 after a 20-month hiatus, had made a similar proposal. U.S. officials declined to comment.In Damascus, Mitchell, who had accompanied Clinton to the region, told reporters: Our effort to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in no way contradicts or conflicts with our goal of a comprehensive peace including peace between Israel and Syria.Israel and Syria last held direct peace talks in the United States in 2000, but failed to reach agreement on the future of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau captured by Israeli forces in 1967 and which Damascus wants back.Four rounds of indirect talks that were mediated by Turkey broke down in 2008. Syria plays host to exiled leaders of the Hamas Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip and opposes Abbas's peace efforts.
Focusing on the U.S. drive to broker Israeli-Palestinian peace, Clinton said in an interview with ABC News in Jerusalem that hard work was under way to make sure there remains a conducive atmosphere to constructive talks.Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were due to meet next week and set a new date for leaders to convene. In a statement, Netanyahu's bureau said he was standing by his position not to extend the moratorium. He has said, however, he intends to limit the scope of future settlement construction.The settlements are deemed by the World Court to be illegal, a finding disputed by Israel. Palestinians fear the enclaves will deny them a viable and contiguous country.Meeting in Brussels on Thursday, European leaders issued a statement also calling on Israel to extend the moratorium.The Arab League's chief, Amr Moussa, said negotiating while settlements are built is a waste of time.As part of U.S. President Barack Obama's drive for a wider peace between Israel and the Arab world, Mitchell plans to visit Lebanon to meet Lebanese leaders. In the Hamas-run Gaza Strip overnight, Israeli aircraft carried out three air strikes against suspected militant targets after rocket and mortar bomb attacks on Israel. No casualties were reported in the incidents.(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah, Arshad Mohammed in Amman, Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Damascus, Deborah Charles in Washington, and Dina Zayed, Marwa Awad, and Ayman Samir in Cairo; Editing by Peter Graff)
U.S. says still aiming for Syria-Israel peace deal
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis – Thu Sep 16, 3:58 pm ET
DAMASCUS (Reuters) – The United States assured Syria on Thursday that its focus on a securing a peace deal between the Palestinians and Israel would not deflect Washington from pushing for an Israeli-Syrian agreement.Our effort to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in no way contradicts or conflicts with our goal of comprehensive peace including peace between Israel and Syria, U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell told reporters after meeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.We believe strongly that a foundation of good faith negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis can and should support the entire structure of comprehensive peace, he added.The official news agency said Assad said told Mitchell that any resumption of negotiations with Israel -- which were broken off in 2008 -- has to be based on clear foundations.Syria is not asking for any compromises from Israel to achieve peace, but for restoring land that has been raped and should return in full to its legitimate owners, Assad said.He was referring to the Golan Heights, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in the 1980s in a move the United Nations Security Council declared as null.
Mitchell accompanied Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who held three days of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders that ended on Thursday with no signs of progress on breaking a deadlock over West Bank settlements.His brief trip to Syria as Clinton was leaving the Middle East shows the increasing consideration the United States is giving to Syria, which hosts exiled leaders of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and backs Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah movement.Hamas is opposed to the talks between Israel and Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.There are some who are determined to disrupt the process. We are determined to see it through,Mitchell said.Assad has made it clear that only the United States can deliver peace between Syria and Israel while emphasising that Turkey, which hosted four rounds of inconclusive talks in 2008, must also play a role.But he has stuck to a long standing demand that any talks must result in a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau which now has 20,000 Israeli settlers, as well as an equal number of Syrians under occupation.Almost 10 years of U.S.-supervised negotiations collapsed in 2000, several months before the death of Assad's father, President Hafez al-Assad.(Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)
US: time may come for special nuke probe of Syria By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer – Thu Sep 16, 12:35 pm ET
VIENNA – A U.S. envoy on Thursday suggested time was running out for Syria to cooperate with a U.N. atomic agency probe of alleged secret nuclear activities before the agency invokes its seldom-used authority to call for a special inspection — a possible prelude to U.N. Security Council involvement.Rising to Syria's defense, a senior Iranian diplomat accused the organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, of harassing Syria by leveling false allegations in collusion with Israel and its allies.The two officials spoke as the 35-nation atomic agency board meeting turned its attention from the agency's probe of Iran's nuclear activities to suspicions that Syria has a hidden nuclear program.Israeli warplanes bombed what the U.S. says was a nearly finished nuclear reactor three years ago, launching an agency investigation. After an initial visit to the site, agency inspectors have not been allowed to return or visit other suspect sites. The agency's chief, Yukiya Amano, says Syria's lack of cooperation could mean that information sought by the agency could be lost with the passage of time.Iranian envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh told the board that Israel's attack is the real issue and Syria has become targeted by a vicious circle of endless questions and allegations.
Syria denies hiding nuclear activities. It, Iran and other Islamic nations say Israel is the main nuclear problem in the Mideast.They plan to push for a vote at a 151-nation IAEA conference next week on a resolution criticizing Israel's undeclared nuclear capabilities and urging the Jewish state — commonly considered to have nuclear weapons — to open up its program to IAEA perusal.But Glyn Davies, the chief U.S. delegate to the agency, warned such a move could undercut ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, telling reporters that now is not the time (and) the IAEA is not the place for this resolution.Diplomats told The Associated Press that same message was delivered Tuesday by Gary Samore, President Barack Obama's special nuclear envoy to Arab ambassadors accredited to the IAEA.In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley confirmed that the U.S. is concerned that the Arab move, should it happen, could jeopardize the Mideast talks.First of all, let's state a fact, Crowley said. Israel has fully cooperated with the IAEA and that is in contrast to one or more governments, Iran and Syria being two that come to mind, who have not cooperated with the IAEA.Israel, as well as the U.S. and other close allies consider the discussion about Israel's nuclear capacities a serious distraction from what they consider the main Mideast nuclear threats — Iran and Syria — a point underlined by Israel's chief delegate to the board.It is Iran which represents the greatest threat to peace and security in the Middle East and beyond, Ehud Azulay said, in comments to the closed meeting made available to the AP.For his part, Davies told the board that, unless Syria ends its stonewalling, the IAEA must increasingly consider all available measures and authorities to pursue the verification assurances the international community seeks — diplomatic language for a special inspection.
Only twice has the atomic agency ever called for or carried out a special inspection, which gives it authority for countrywide probes of known or suspect nuclear activities.Romania asked to be inspected in 1992 to show that the post-communist government had no nuclear-weapons aspirations. A year later, the agency asked for a special inspection in North Korea — a request turned down by the country, which continued with its secret development of nuclear weapons.Refusal by Syria to allow a special inspection would allow the board to refer the issue to the U.N. Security Council, which then could issue a reprimand, pass a resolution demanding compliance and ultimately pass the kind of sanctions Iran is now under for refusing to heed demands to curb nuclear activities that could be used both to generate energy or make weapons.
EU urges Israel to extend settlement freeze
– Thu Sep 16, 11:53 am ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) – The European Union urged Israel on Thursday to extend its moratorium on settlement building, a key demand made by Palestinians to keep renewed peace talks afloat, a text obtained by AFP showed.In a declaration adopted by foreign ministers, the EU recalls that settlements are illegal under international law and calls for an extension of the moratorium decided by Israel.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has warned that he would walk out of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if Israel decided to let the partial moratorium expire as scheduled on September 26.The EU declaration also urged an end to rocket and terrorist attacks against Israel. Palestinian militants have launched rockets against Israel from the Gaza Strip, which is run by the Islamist movement Hamas.The 27-nation bloc continues to call for a complete stop to all violence, in particular rocket fire and terrorist attacks, the declaration says.It is indispensable that both parties observe calm and restraint and refrain from actions that could affect negatively the process of negotiations,the text says.Israel and the Palestinians relaunched US-brokered direct peace talks on September 2 after a 20-month hiatus, but they remain deeply divided on the issue of settlement construction.Some 500,000 Israelis live in more than 120 Jewish settlements across the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories expected to form the bulk of a future Palestinian state.
The conflict over settlements has been one of the core disputes in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks going back to the early 1990s.Netanyahu has thus far refused to extend the partial ban despite US President Barack Obama urging him to do so, though he has hinted he would confine building to major settlement blocs.The European Union forms along with the United States, Russia and the United Nations the diplomatic Quartet seeking a solution to the Middle East conflict.
Israel, Palestinians trade fire as leaders talk peace
– Wed Sep 15, 1:55 pm ET
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – A Palestinian was killed by Israeli air strikes on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Wednesday as Israeli and Palestinian leaders were preparing to hold peace talks in Jerusalem.The 23-year-old man was killed and two others wounded by strikes carried out on smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border, Palestinian medics and security officials said.The raids followed a morning of Palestinian rocket and mortar fire into Israel and came ahead of a new round of peace talks vehemently opposed by Gaza's militant Hamas rulers.The Israeli military confirmed that aircraft attacked tunnels but gave no details.A rocket and eight mortar rounds had earlier been fired from Gaza, a military spokeswoman said, with the rocket striking near the port city of Ashkelon.None of them caused any injury or damage, she said.A police spokesman said two of the mortar shells contained phosphorus.It's not the first time Palestinians fire shells with phosphorus, but it hadn't happened for about one year, he told AFP.
The Popular Resistance Committees, a small militant group, claimed responsibility for the attacks. While not under the command of Hamas the group also strongly opposes peace talks with Israel.This operation will continue in order to reject the negotiations, it said in a statement.There has been an upturn in rocket and mortar attacks since the September 2 restart of peace talks, after months of relative calm that followed an Israeli offensive in December 2008 and January 2009 aimed at halting such attacks.We are seing an increase in attempts and successes in attacking Israeli territory, a senior Israeli officer told reporters on condition of anonymity.
Our assessment is this will continue in the coming days and that we will also see an increase in attacks on regular patrols along the border.He said that while Hamas was not believed to have launched the attacks, the organisation was complicit in turning a blind eye to the activities of other factions in the territory it has ruled since 2007.We are seing more and more that Hamas is letting other terrorist organisations in the Strip conduct terror attacks, he said.Our forces will not let this escalation go on, he added, without elaborating.Earlier on Wednesday Environment Minister Gilad Erdan, of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightwing Likud party, warned that continued attacks could lead to a reprise of the Gaza offensive,codenamed Operation Cast Lead,which cost the lives of 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.We may be obliged to consider a second operation like Cast Lead, Erdan told Israeli public radio.
US envoy Mitchell to meet Syria's Assad: official
– Tue Sep 14, 2:24 pm ET
SHARM EL-SHEIKH (AFP) – US Middle East envoy George Mitchell was due in Syria later this week for talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, a US official said in Egypt on Tuesday.The official told AFP Mitchell would have consultations with Assad after participating in negotiations in Egypt, Israel and the West Bank.An official at the US embassy in Damascus said the meeting would be on Thursday morning.In the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday, Mitchell joined US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.Clinton was due to hold similar talks in Jerusalem on Wednesday and then visit Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Thursday, the day she travels to Jordan for talks with King Abdullah II.It was not clear if Mitchell will travel with Clinton to Jordan.
Clinton holds second meeting with Abbas, Netanyahu
– Tue Sep 14, 10:30 am ET
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held a second meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Tuesday, the Egyptian foreign minister said.Clinton met with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders earlier on Tuesday for a 100-minute meeting and the three went back into talks after lunch, Ahmed Abul Gheit said.The Israeli side, the Palestinian side and the US Secretary of State went back into talks, Abul Gheit told reporters.Egypt is hosting the second round of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians which were launched in Washington on September 2.US envoy George Mitchell, who is in Sharm el-Sheikh, said the two sides had begun serious discussion on core issues, which include Israel's security, the borders of a future Palestinian state, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the future of Jerusalem.The two leaders are due to hold another three-way meeting with Clinton again on Wednesday.On her way to Egypt from Washington, Clinton repeated US President Barack Obama's call last Friday for Israel to extend the 10-month moratorium on settlement construction that is due to expire later this month, a key sticking point in discussions.
Round 2 of Israeli-Palestinian talks begins in Egypt By Joshua Mitnick – Tue Sep 14, 9:07 am ET CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
Tel Aviv – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is meeting Israeli and Palestinian leaders today in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in an attempt to avoid a breakdown of peace talks over Israeli settlements in the West Bank. With Palestinians vowing to quit the talks if Israel does not agree to extend the settlement freeze due to expire Sept. 26, the summit is shaping up to be a cliffhanger test of American mediation savvy.The Americans are going to have to do the finessing, says Gershon Baskin, codirector of the Israel Palestinian Center for Research and Information. Each side has climbed up a ladder. Can the Americans convince each side that they can get enough out of [the talks] so they continue the negotiations? President Obama has appealed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to extend the freeze. The prime minister, however, has said building will resume, though he has hinted at a possible compromise.Will Netanyahu and Abbas bend?Both Mr. Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who will meet again tomorrow in Jerusalem, are under heavy political pressure at home not to bend. Israeli settlers have threatened to bring down Netanyahu's government if he continues the freeze, suggesting real concerns that the prime minister's stance on settlements has evolved since the hard-line approach he took during his first term, in the 1990s.The clearest sign [of Netanyahu's evolution] is the almost hysterical response of the leaders of the settlement movement, says Shmuel Rosner, a columnist for the Jerusalem Post. They have realized sooner than most Israelis that the prime minister is willing to compromise on settlements more than in the past.To make it easier on them, the US needs to reward the sides assurances for the Palestinians on the territorial dimensions of a future state and for the Israelis on security, Mr. Baskin says.The Israelis have said that they want to discuss first security arrangements and their demand for Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. The Palestinians want to discuss an agreement on borders.
Top 5 issues on the table for Israeli-Palestinian talks
Only 1 in 5 Israelis think Abbas sincerely wants peaceAt the inaugural round in Washington earlier this month, the sides agreed to a one-year target for an agreement. But that hasn't gone far toward spurring optimism about the prospects for a deal. A poll published Tuesday in the Israeli daily newspaper Yediot Ahronot found that 71 percent of respondents don't believe that the talks will lead to a peace agreement. Only one-fifth of the Israelis polled believe that Mr. Abbas is sincere about reaching an agreement. And only 1 in 3 believe their own leader, Netanyahu, is sincere about reaching an agreement.The Palestinians have also grown weary of peace summits, and have low expectations that a deal can be reached after 17 years since the first Israeli Palestinian accord. But not everyone in the region is blasé about the talks. Hamas, in an attempt to undermine the Western-sponsored Palestinian Authority in the negotiations, has pledged a campaign of attacks against Israelis.
Middle East peace talks resume in Egypt
– Mon Sep 13, 11:30 pm ET
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) – US-brokered talks between Israel and the Palestinians resume in Egypt on Tuesday as tensions over the issue of settlements threaten the success of the latest push for peace.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will oversee the second round of talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the Red Sea resort of S1arm el-Sheikh, after direct negotiations were launched in Washington on September 2.The parties are scheduled to continue their talks in Jerusalem on Wednesday.At the heart of tensions between Israel and the Palestinians is the thorny issue of Jewish settlement building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.Israeli officials have indicated they will not extend a settlement freeze due to expire on September 26, but the Palestinians have warned they will quit the talks if construction work continues on occupied land.Under intense pressure from Washington, both sides do not want to be seen causing the collapse of the talks, but they also face domestic calls not to compromise.US President Barack Obama was cautiously optimistic ahead of Tuesday's meeting, the first between Israel and the Palestinians since the Jewish state's 22-day war on the Gaza Strip in December 2008 and January 2009.I remain hopeful but this is going to be tough, he told reporters Friday, adding he had urged Netanyahu to extend the moratorium and Abbas to show more flexibility.Tuesday's talks will also have to tackle the negotiation agenda with Netanyahu reportedly wanting to first address future security arrangements and secure Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.
But Palestinians want to first define the borders of a future Palestinian state, address the status of Jerusalem and discuss right of return of refugees who in 1948 fled or were driven out of what is now Israel.Israel has to choose between peace and settlements. If it chooses settlements, that will mean the destruction of the negotiations, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said on the eve of the talks, stressing this was Abbas's position.In Sharm el-Sheikh, Clinton, Abbas and Netanyahu will meet separately with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a key broker between Israel and the Palestinians who has repeatedly said a continuation of settlements would be detrimental.Israel must be convinced that it is in the interest of negotiation process not to build new settlements... this matter will have a very harmful effect on the negotiations and could cast a shadow over Israel's credibility, Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said on the eve of the talks.The new US-sponsored negotiations aim to settle in one year the core issues of security for Israel, the borders of a Palestinian state, the fate of Palestinian refugees, and the future of Jerusalem.
