Clinton urges immediate dialogue on Middle East
– Wed Apr 20, 9:09 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged Israel and the Palestinians to resume dialogue immediately even as unrest roils the region.The two parties are trying to analyze what this means for their future position, Clinton told PBS television.But I would hope -- and President (Barack) Obama has said that he will continue to press both sides, which is what we believe we have to do -- that everyone would realize that negotiations are the only way, but more than that, they are an immediate need.Clinton stressed that it is in the best interest of both the Israelis and the Palestinians, even in the midst of everything going on in the region, to try to turn to the hard work of negotiating a settlement.The last US effort to jumpstart the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue on a two-state solution has been bogged down since September as Israel refuses to freeze new settlements in occupied territories.But we do not support any unilateral effort by the Palestinians to go to the United Nations to try to obtain some authorization or approval vote with respect to statehood, because we think we can only achieve the two state solution that we strongly advocate through negotiations,Clinton added.
Palestinian leader: There will be no new uprising By BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA, Associated Press – Wed Apr 20, 11:34 am ET
TUNIS, Tunisia – The Palestinian president said Wednesday he is opposed to another armed uprising against Israel, even if faltering peace efforts fail later this year.
Mahmoud Abbas told reporters in Tunisia that he remains committed to the U.S.-backed target of reaching a negotiated peace agreement with Israel by September.But with talks stalled for months, he repeated his plan to unilaterally seek U.N. endorsement of Palestinian independence in the absence of a deal.Abbas said he would turn to the U.N. General Assembly, where he said he expects about 140 countries to vote in favor of an independent Palestine.Since the assembly's decisions are not legally binding, the vote would be largely symbolic, and it remains unclear what the Palestinians will do after that.At a news conference before heading to France, Abbas said, in answer to a question, that the Palestinians would not unilaterally proclaim a state.
We want this to come about in accord with the Israelis and in the framework of the United Nations, the Palestinian leader said.Abbas said whatever happens, he did not consider violence an option.I will not accept a third military uprising, he said, noting that the last armed uprising against Israel was disastrous for us.Around 6,000 Palestinians, along with more than 1,000 Israelis, were killed in years of fighting that erupted in September 2000. The fighting also heavily damaged the Palestinian economy.Abbas said he still supported popular resistance — or demonstrations — against Israel's occupation of the West Bank. Israel says these demonstrations often turn violent, and activists are sporadically wounded, or even killed, in clashes with Israeli forces.We have the popular resistance, he said.But to say that you want to hold a gun or pistol to fight, then excuse me, I will not allow that as long as I'm the president.Abbas called on the international community, in particular Washington, to pressure Israel to restart negotiations, saying that if Israel shows a serious willingness to negotiate, for our part we want to reach a solution.He said that, while in Paris, he would ask French President Nicolas Sarkozy to give new momentum to the peace process through the Quartet — the EU, the U.S., the U.N. and Russia.Israel and the Palestinians relaunched peace talks in September at the White House, where President Barack Obama pledged to forge a peace deal within a year.
The talks broke down just three weeks later after an Israeli moratorium on settlement construction expired. The Palestinians say there is no point in negotiating if Israel continues to build homes for Jews in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — captured territories the Palestinians claim for their future state.Abbas has in the past said he will return to the negotiating table if Israel halts settlement construction and commits to a near-total withdrawal from the West Bank and east Jerusalem.In Tunis on Wednesday, he said vaguely that there need be no pretexts.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says peace talks should start without any preconditions. September is shaping up to be a key month for peace efforts. The Palestinians say that in the absence of a peace deal, they will take their case to the United Nations.While they can expect strong support in the General Assembly, it appears doubtful that they can win recognition from the more powerful Security Council.The U.S., which wields veto power in the council, has been cool to the idea of a unilateral declaration of independence, saying Israel and the Palestinians must resolve their differences through negotiations.The Palestinians won an important endorsement last week when donor states, which send hundreds of millions of dollars in aid each year, said institutions developed by the Palestinian Authority are now above the threshold for a functioning state.
International support for the Palestinians has put heavy pressure on Netanyahu to offer his own diplomatic plan to end the impasse.Netanyahu is expected to deliver a major policy speech to U.S. Congress next month. But officials close to the prime minister say he has not yet decided what he plans to say.Abbas, meanwhile, pointed an accusatory finger at Iran in addressing bitter divisions within Palestinian ranks, saying on private Nessa TV that Tehran was behind a blockage in reconciliation with the Islamist Hamas movement controlling the Gaza Strip.We are for unifying our ranks and not for a nation torn within,he said in a plea directed at Hamas and was hoping for a positive response.
US rejects Palestinian bid to seek UN recognition
– Tue Apr 19, 5:44 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States again Tuesday rejected Palestinian plans to seek recognition for an independent state unilaterally from the United Nations without reaching a peace accord with Israel.We don't believe it's a good idea, we don't believe it's helpful, said US State Department spokesman Mark Toner.US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians resumed in September, 2010, but collapsed shortly afterwards when Israel refused to extend a moratorium on settlement building in the occupied territories. Israel has insisted that all issues, including the settlements, should be hammered out in direct talks.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas has said that he will seek recognition at the United Nations for an independent state in September.But the United States, which has shepherded the peace process, continues to insist that only a fully-negotiated agreement with Israel on a two-state solution can lead to a durable peace between the two countries.We continue to press both sides to begin talking again in direct negotiations, Toner said.
Palestinians to seek UN membership if no peace By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press – Tue Apr 19, 3:44 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS – The Palestinians say that if a peace treaty with Israel isn't reached by September, their first choice is to go to the U.N. Security Council with such strong support and arguments that it would recommend admission of Palestine as a new member of the United Nations.That would require convincing the U.S., Israel's ally, not to veto a resolution supporting membership for an independent Palestinian state, which won't be easy.U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Tuesday the Obama administration doesn't believe a Palestinian unilateral declaration of statehood or attempts to get the Security Council to endorse it are a good idea.I don't want to preview how we might vote on a council resolution, Toner said,but we don't view it as a helpful step.Riyad Mansour, the top Palestinian diplomat at the U.N., said in an interview with The Associated Press that there are other options to achieve the goal through the U.N.He said September looms large for the Palestinians because there are so many things that will converge.First, Israel and the Palestinians agreed on President Barack Obama's target of September 2011 for a peace agreement, a date endorsed by the European Union and much of the world. Second, the two-year program to build the infrastructure of a Palestinian state will be complete, and third, the Palestinians hope two-thirds of the 192 U.N. member states will have recognized Palestine as an independent state, Mansour said.Obama announced in September 2010, as U.S.-brokered direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations resumed, that a peace treaty should be signed in a year, but those talks collapsed weeks later after Israel ended its freeze on building settlements.
The Palestinians insist they will not resume peace talks until Israel stops building settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — lands it captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which the Palestinians want for their future state. Israel maintains that the Palestinians should not be setting conditions for talks and that settlements didn't stop them negotiating in the past.Our preference what should happen in September is to have a peace treaty with the Israelis to end the occupation to allow for our independence and our membership in the United Nations, Mansour said.The U.S. has been heading efforts to restart negotiations but Mansour said the Palestinians want the Quartet — the mediating group consisting of the U.S., U.N., European Union and Russia — to take the lead.Mansour expressed regret that the U.S. blocked a Quartet meeting tentatively scheduled for last Friday in Berlin to discuss, and hopefully endorse, the outlines of a peace settlement proposed by Britain, France and Germany. A U.S. official said a Quartet meeting wouldn't produce anything that would help restart direct talks.But Mansour said Palestinian leaders indicated willingness to go back to negotiations if the Quartet agreed on the proposal by the three European countries.It calls for an immediate halt to settlement activity, a solution to the question of Palestinian refugees, and agreement on the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of both countries and on borders before the 1967 Mideast war, with approved land swaps. It also called for security arrangements that respect Palestinian sovereignty and protect Israel's security and prevent a resurgence of terrorism.We're trying our best to open doors for negotiations, Mansour said in the interview late Thursday.The Israelis are choosing settlements over peace.Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the sooner the Palestinians agree to resume peace talks, the sooner we will all be able to take steps that will bring us closer to peace.
The goal of establishing a Palestinian state, living in peace with Israel,can only be achieved through dialogue and negotiations — there is simply no other way, Palmor said. Unilateral measures go exactly the opposite way.But Mansour said that if there is no peace treaty by September,for whatever reasons, then we are not going to be hostage to the position of Israel, nor will we accept that nothing can be done until the Israelis are ready and willing.For the last two years, he said, the Palestinians have been preparing for independence and on Thursday they won an important endorsement when a meeting of key donor states in Brussels said that the institutions developed by the Palestinian Authority are now above the threshold for a functioning state.The donors, who give the Palestinians hundreds of millions of dollars in aid each year, cited reports prepared by the World Bank, the U.N. and the International Monetary Fund.In addition, Mansour said, Palestine has been recognized as an independent state by 112 countries. Possible recognition by six others is being examined, he said, and hopefully by September 2011 we will have 130, maybe 140 countries recognizing the state of Palestine.That is important because U.N. membership not only requires a recommendation from the Security Council but approval by two-thirds of the General Assembly, or 128 countries.This is the end game, Mansour said — the more countries the Palestinians have on their side, the more they can pursue independence,whether in the Security Council or in the General Assembly or combined.Mansour said the Palestinian preference is for Security Council action in September, backed by widespread recognitions, to strengthen our argument for statehood.We want to make it difficult for anyone to block our effort for securing membership in the Security Council,he said.
If the U.S. vetoes a Security Council resolution recommending statehood, there's the option of going before the General Assembly, where there is no veto but resolutions are nonbinding.Mansour said that among other options is a General Assembly resolution similar to that of 1947 that called for Palestine to be divided into Jewish and Arab states. Another possibility advanced by some is Uniting for Peace, a General Assembly resolution that allows it to take action if it believes the Security Council has failed to head off a threat to world peace and security. But that option would be hard to implement because it would require proving that denying the Palestinians U.N. membership threatens international peace and security. Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report from Washington.
Netanyahu thanks Obama for Dome missile funding
– Mon Apr 18, 5:05 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked US President Barack Obama on Monday for helping fund a missile defense system protecting the Jewish state from Palestinian rockets, the White House said.Netanyahu expressed his deep appreciation for US funding for the Iron Dome rocket and mortar defense system, which he noted has successfully intercepted several rockets aimed at Israeli communities,the White House said in a readout of the phone call.Obama congratulated the prime minister on this impressive Israeli technological achievement and expressed his pride that Israeli-American cooperation made it possible.The American president called Netanyahu in part to wish him a happy Passover, the White House said.The US Congress approved $205 million -- sought last May by Obama -- to help Israel deploy a short-range anti-missile defense system called Iron Dome.The aid became official when Obama signed off on a 2011 budget appropriation.The figure is in addition to Washington's annual military finance package to key Middle East ally Israel.Since 2007 the United States has allocated close to $3 trillion per year to Israel, entirely devoted to the purchase of US weapons, under a bilateral memorandum valid until 2017.Netanyahu assured in a statement Saturday that with the US funding, we will protect civilians and cities of Israel against rockets fired from Gaza.The Israeli army has now deployed Iron Dome in two locations, first in the southern desert city of Beersheva on March 27, just days after it was hit by Grad rockets fired by militants from the Gaza Strip, and on April 4 around the southern port city of Ashkelon.
