ISRAEL MAY ACCEPT KERRYS PEACE FRAMEWORK PROPOSAL

JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.

DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS-10 WORLD REGIONS/TRADE BLOCS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS-10 WORLD DIVISION WORLD GOVERNMENT) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(TAKE OVER 3 WORLD REGIONS)

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come (ROMANS IN AD 70) shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMANS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
27 And he( EU ROMAN, JEWISH DICTATOR) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:( 7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,( 3 1/2 YRS) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

NOW PROPHECY IS COMING TOGETHER.ABBAS WILL LET NATO PROTECT IT.AND SINCE THE EU GUARENTEES ISRAELS SECURITY THE BIBLE SAYS.MOST OF THE NATO MEMBERS ARE EUROPEAN UNION MEMBERS.SO THIS FITS RIGHT IN WITH PROPHECY.

Abbas Suggests NATO Presence in Palestinian State

Abbas offers to have IDF troops remain in 'Palestine' for five years, then replace them with a NATO force that can stay "for a long time."-By Elad Benari-First Publish: 2/3/2014, 4:12 AM-Israelnationalnews

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas

Flash 90

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has suggested that NATO would be left in charge of the future Palestinian state instead of an army.Speaking to The New York Times from Ramallah, Abbas said that he would agree to let Israeli troops remain in the Palestinian state for a transitional period of five years to work with Palestinian and Jordanian security forces and reassure the Israeli public that it is not going to get hit with thousands of rockets, as was the case after the “Disengagement” from Gaza.Last week, Abbas indicated that he would agree to have Israeli troops remain in Judea and Samaria for only three years, rejecting an idea by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to have Israeli forces remain for 10 to 15 years.
After the five-year transitional period, he told The New York Times, the Israeli forces could be replaced indefinitely by an American-led NATO force, with troops throughout the territory, at every crossing and within Arab eastern Jerusalem, along with Palestinian Arab police and security units.The NATO forces could stay “for a long time, and wherever they want, not only on the eastern borders but also on the western borders, everywhere ... For a long time, for the time they wish. NATO can be everywhere, why not?” said Abbas.Such a force, he said, “can stay to reassure the Israelis, and to protect us. We will be demilitarized. ... Do you think we have any illusion that we can have any security if the Israelis do not feel they have security?”
Abbas told The New York Times that he could not possibly accept a lengthy Israeli military presence in a sovereign Palestinian state, saying, “At the end of five years my country will be clean of occupation.”
“The Israelis do not want the third party,” he said. “[Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert, he welcomed this idea. Mr. Netanyahu told me directly, when we were in his house, ‘I cannot rely on anybody to protect my security except my army. ...’ He doesn’t want to leave the borders to us. I told him, ‘If you will not trust your allies, so whom do you trust? I am not bringing for you Turkey and Indonesia.’ He said, ‘I trust my army only. ...’ The Israelis are occupiers and they want to stay forever. When they say they want to stay for 40 years, it means they will not go out from our territory.”“We have to address, first of all, Mr. Netanyahu,” Abbas told The Times. “Mr. Netanyahu is the key. If he does believe in peace, everything will be easy.”The comments come as peace talks between the sides continue, and as Kerry is preparing to present his framework for the talks.Last week, Thomas Friedman, who also conducted the New York Times interview with Abbas, published some details of Kerry’s plan which, he said, will call for a phased Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria based on the 1949 lines, with "unprecedented" security arrangements in the strategic Jordan Valley.The Israeli withdrawal will not include certain settlement blocs, but Israel will compensate the Arab side for this with Israeli territory. The deal will call for “Palestine” to have a capital in Arab eastern Jerusalem and to recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. It will not include any right of return for Palestinian refugees into pre-1967 Israel, Friedman said.American Jewish leaders  who were briefed by envoy Martin Indyk  provided some more details of Kerry’s framework on Thursday, saying the agreement mentions a Palestinian state with borders based on the 1949 Armistice lines and with land swaps between Israel and the PA. 75 to 80 percent of the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria would remain in their homes even after a permanent agreement.It is believed that Kerry’s framework is his way to convince the sides to continue the talks beyond the nine-month period that was decided upon and that is to end in April. While the PA previously declared that talks will not be extended by even one day, Abbas told The Times that April is “not a sacred date.”“Suppose by the end of nine months we got something promising. Shall I stop? I will not stop. If, after nine months, we didn’t get anything, if there is nothing on the horizon, we will stop,” he said.Referring to Kerry’s framework, Abbas distanced himself from it, saying, “He has the right to do whatever he wants, and at the end we have the right to say whatever we want.”Asked about Netanyahu’s insistence that he recognize Israel as a Jewish state, Abbas said, “This is out of the question.” He added that Jordan and Egypt were not asked to do so when they signed peace treaties with Israel 

Palestinian Leader Seeks NATO Force in Future State

By JODI RUDORENFEB. 2, 2014-New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/03/world/middleeast/palestinian-leader-seeks-nato-force-in-future-state.html?_r=0 

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Six months into peace talks dominated by discussion about security, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority has proposed to Secretary of State John Kerry that an American-led NATO force patrol a future Palestinian state indefinitely, with troops positioned throughout the territory, at all crossings, and within Jerusalem.Mr. Abbas said in an interview with The New York Times at his headquarters here over the weekend that Israeli soldiers could remain in the West Bank for up to five years — not three, as he previously stated — and that Jewish settlements should be phased out of the new Palestinian state along a similar timetable. Palestine, he said, would not have its own army, only a police force, so the NATO mission would be responsible for preventing the weapons smuggling and terrorism that Israel fears.“For a long time, and wherever they want, not only on the eastern borders, but also on the western borders, everywhere,” Mr. Abbas said of the imagined NATO mission. “The third party can stay. They can stay to reassure the Israelis, and to protect us.“We will be demilitarized,” he added. “Do you think we have any illusion that we can have any security if the Israelis do not feel they have security?”The interview, a rarity for the Palestinian leader with a Western news organization, was his most expansive discourse to date on security arrangements, and it underscored the significant gaps remaining between the two sides. Israel has insisted on a long-term military presence in the Jordan Valley and on controlling the timing and conditions for the withdrawal of its troops.Mr. Abbas’s proposal comes at a sensitive stage of the American-brokered negotiations. Mr. Kerry is preparing to present a framework of core principles for a peace deal, including a security plan, a border roughly along the 1967 lines, Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and Jerusalem as a shared capital.The specificity of the framework, and how the Israeli and Palestinian leaders express reservations to it, will likely determine whether the talks continue past the April 29 expiration date. One possibility, according to several people engaged in the process, is to extend the negotiations through 2014, with Israel agreeing to freeze settlement construction in areas planned to become part of Palestine under the framework, and Mr. Abbas holding off joining the International Criminal Court and United Nations agencies — steps that Israel and the United States vigorously oppose.“It’s not a sacred date,” Mr. Abbas said. “Suppose by the end of nine months we got something promising. Shall I stop? I will not stop. If, after nine months, we didn’t get anything, if there is nothing on the horizon, we will stop.”But Mr. Abbas also distanced himself somewhat from Mr. Kerry’s framework, saying, “He has the right to do whatever he wants, and at the end we have the right to say whatever we want.” This echoed the statement last week by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel that “Israel does not have to agree with everything America presents.”Mr. Netanyahu’s office refused to respond to Mr. Abbas’s comments. But the idea that Israel can rely only on its own military, not a third party, is a standard trope of the prime minister’s. He also says a fixed timetable is untenable, citing the volatility in the region. “Our attitude toward international forces is skeptical in the extreme,” said one senior Israeli official. “Timing can’t be artificial. It has to be based on performance, and we want to be able to judge what’s going on with performance.”Jen Psaki, Mr. Kerry’s spokeswoman, said in an email that “there are many ideas being proposed from both the Israelis and the Palestinians, but it is premature to make any predictions about the final contents of a framework.” Others briefed on the negotiations said the secretary was trying to bridge the gap on security by pressing Mr. Abbas to extend his time frame, and by urging Israel to allow the United States, possibly with Jordanian involvement, to assess the conditions for withdrawal.“The balance point has not been found yet,” said one Israeli security expert who has been consulted in the negotiations, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the secrecy surrounding them. “The U.S. understands the Israeli position, accepts that there should be long-term presence, but looks for ways to reconcile between Israeli security needs and Palestinian needs for sovereignty and dignity.”Mr. Abbas, 78, was relaxed and confident, if not quite optimistic, during the interview, sprinkling his politics with bits of humor. It took place in an outer sitting room where the Palestinian president has met delegations of left-leaning American Jews and foreign dignitaries and where, he recalled, the former American peace envoy George J. Mitchell said of the Israelis before departing in 2011, “They foiled me.”He sipped sweet tea and then strong coffee, twice using a small buzzer to summon an aide who brought a single cigarette. He spoke in English, occasionally leaning on two colleagues for translation. (It took a few minutes to decipher whether Mr. Mitchell had said “fooled,” “failed” or “foiled” — Mr. Abbas joked that all three applied.) On recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, Mr. Abbas said, “This is out of the question,” noting that Jordan and Egypt were not asked to do so when they signed peace treaties with Israel. He presented a 28-page packet he has been distributing widely that included a 1948 letter signed by President Harry Truman in which “Jewish state” was crossed out and replaced by “State of Israel”; statements by Israel’s founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion; and a paper on Edwin Montagu, a Jewish member of the British cabinet who opposed the 1917 Balfour Declaration supporting a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine.Mr. Abbas said that he had been resisting pressure to join the United Nations agencies from the Palestinian street and leadership — including unanimous votes by the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee and the central committee of his own Fatah Party — and that his staff had presented 63 applications ready for his signature.“No, I don’t want, I want to take advantage of every minute now, maybe we can achieve something,” he said. “I don’t like to go to the courts. I don’t like courts. I want to solve my problems directly between the parties.” But he added, “If I don’t get my rights, now put your foot in my shoe — what should I do?”He would not, he said, allow a third intifada, or uprising. “In my life, and if I have any more life in the future,” he said, “I will never return to the armed struggle.”The NATO security proposal is not entirely new: Mr. Abbas said he had won support for the notion from former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and from President George W. Bush. He also said he presented the idea of an American-led force that included Jordanians to Mr. Netanyahu, at a meeting at the prime minister’s house a few years ago with then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. “I told him: ‘If you will not trust your allies, so whom do you trust? I am not bringing for you Turkey and Indonesia,’ ” Mr. Abbas recalled. “He said, ‘I trust my army only.’ ”“We have to address, first of all, Mr. Netanyahu,” the president said. “Mr. Netanyahu is the key. If he does believe in peace, everything will be easy.”A version of this article appears in print on February 3, 2014, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Palestinian Leader Seeks NATO Force in Future State. 

Abbas: IDF can remain in future Palestine for 5 years

Israel rejects ‘artificial timeline’; PA leader also vows ‘no return to armed struggle,’ but says he may turn to world courts if talks fail

By Haviv Rettig Gur and Spencer Ho February 3, 2014, 9:50 am 14-The Times of Israel

The Palestinian Authority would allow an IDF presence in a future Palestinian state for up to five years, while NATO peacekeepers could remain for as long as necessary and patrol all parts of the Palestinian state, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said.“At the end of five years my country will be clean of occupation,” Abbas said, according to an interview published Monday in the New York Times.Abbas added that he would not make that time period subject to an Israeli evaluation of the situation because that would be “a humiliation for us. … They will make a test for us and of course we will fail.”While he was adamant about putting a cap on any IDF presence, Abbas expressed willingness to accept a NATO peacekeeping presence as long as necessary in order to put Israel’s security concerns to rest — “for a long time, and wherever they want, not only on the eastern borders but also on the western borders, everywhere…,” Abbas said. “For a long time, for the time they wish. NATO can be everywhere, why not?”

International peacekeepers “can stay to reassure the Israelis, and to protect us. We will be demilitarized. … Do you think we have any illusion that we can have any security if the Israelis do not feel they have security?”

In any case, he vowed, there would be no return to an armed intifada — at least not under his leadership. “In my life, and if I have any more life in the future,” he said, “I will never return to the armed struggle.”

Palestinian negotiators have been open to an international peacekeeping force in the past, but it has been a sticking point with the Israeli side, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said that Israel must “defend itself — by itself.” According to Abbas, Netanyahu’s position on this issue has been unshakable.“The Israelis do not want the third party,” Abbas said. “[Former Israeli prime minister Ehud] Olmert, he welcomed this idea. Mr. Netanyahu told me directly, when we were in his house, ‘I cannot rely on anybody to protect my security except my army. …’ He doesn’t want to leave the borders to us. I told him: ‘If you will not trust your allies, so whom do you trust? I am not bringing for you Turkey and Indonesia.’ He said, ‘I trust my army only. …’ The Israelis are occupiers and they want to stay forever. When they say they want to stay for 40 years, it means they will not go out from our territory.”A senior Israeli official, speaking to The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said later on Monday that Israel saw “a number of [problematic] issues” with Abbas’s offer of a five-year presence.

“We live in a very volatile region, where the security challenges are very dynamic. And an official time framework for a security presence, we believe, is very problematic. We think it has to be based on realities on the ground. It has to be based on performance. So establishing an artificial timeline is a mistake. And of course it has to be something Israel has control over.”The second issue: When it comes to multinational forces, the official said, “Israel is skeptical in the extreme. Ultimately, Israel has to have the ability to defend itself by itself. We don’t believe in subcontracting out our most fundamental security requirements. And the experience with international forces” — for example, the official said, in Lebanon, on the Golan Heights, and in Gaza — “hasn’t shown their capability to meet challenges when they’re under pressure.“We’ve never asked for American forces,” the official continued, “but even those who talk about American forces, I’d remind them that when American forces were attacked in Lebanon in the 1980s they pulled out. And that was under Reagan. So we don’t think there’s a substitute for an Israeli security presence.”Abbas also emphasized that if talks fail, he would resort to what the Palestinians consider their foremost diplomatic asset: pursuing membership in international agencies and courts.“Mr. Abbas said that he had been resisting pressure to join the United Nations agencies from the Palestinian street and leadership — including unanimous votes by the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee and the central committee of his own Fatah Party — and that his staff had presented 63 applications ready for his signature,” according to the New York Times.“No, I don’t want, I want to take advantage of every minute now, maybe we can achieve something,” Abbas said. “I don’t like to go to the courts. I don’t like courts. I want to solve my problems directly between the parties.” But he added, “If I don’t get my rights, now put your foot in my shoe — what should I do?”Abbas also rejected, as he has done consistently in the past, the Israeli demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish nation-state.“This is out of the question,” he said, and added that Jordan and Egypt did not do so in their peace treaties with Israel.“How do you have an end of conflict, real peace and reconciliation,” wondered the well-placed Israeli official in response, “and not an endless conflict, without Palestinian recognition [of Israel as a Jewish state]? Is Israel legitimate, in any borders? Until Palestinians can answer that question unequivocally, peace is going to be elusive.”Israel has faced mounting pressure to negotiate a peace agreement with the Palestinians and has reportedly decided to accept US Secretary of State John Kerry’s framework deal for continued negotiations.US top negotiator Martin Indyk told Jewish leaders last week that the Obama administration would soon present its framework for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement that the sides may accept with reservations as a basis for a final deal by the end of 2014.The US framework document, whose terms will not have to be signed off as fully binding by the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships, provides for talks on Palestinian statehood based on the pre-1967 lines with land swaps to enable 75 to 80 percent of settlers to come under Israeli sovereignty, relates to Israel as the Jewish state, provides for compensation for refugees but no Palestinian “right of return,” and does not go into detail on the fate of Jerusalem, Indyk indicated.Meanwhile, well-placed political sources told The Times of Israel over the weekend that Netanyahu’s expected agreement to continue peace talks on the basis of the framework proposal need not provoke a coalition crisis with the right-wing Jewish Home party. Provided the framework deal was not binding and was not brought to a government vote, the sources said, the party’s leader, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, would likely not choose to bolt the coalition over it.Reports in recent weeks have indicated that the Palestinian Authority is set to reject the framework document, but these reports have not been confirmed.Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator over the weekend again ruled out the notion of Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Speaking at a Munich security conference, on a panel with his Israeli counterpart Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Erekat said the demand was unacceptable: “When you say ‘accept Israel as a Jewish state’ you are asking me to change my narrative,” he claimed, asserting that his ancestors lived in the region “5,500 years before [Biblical Israelite leader] Joshua Bin-Nun came and burned my hometown Jericho.”Both Israel’s Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Kerry have warned in recent days that failure to reach an agreement could increase anti-Israel sentiment and lead to more international boycotts. The suggestions elicited significant backlash from right-wing Israeli politicians.Speaking at the Munich Security Conference Sunday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon reiterated Israel’s stance that absent Palestinian “recognition of our right to exist as a nation-state of the Jewish people, giving up the right of return, and addressing our security needs,” there can be no peace agreement.

He added that while he hoped the sides could reach a deal, “if not, we will manage,” despite the looming possibility of increased boycotts and consequent harm to Israel’s economy.

PM: World must pressure Abbas to recognize Jewish state

Netanyahu calls Palestinian intransigence ‘absurd’; PA negotiator says no reason for talks to go on past April, because Israel ducking key decisions

By Itamar Sharon February 3, 2014, 5:16 pm 1-The times of Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday urged the international community to pressure the Palestinian leadership to take positions in peace negotiations that would enable an accord with Israel. Prominent among these, he reiterated his demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state, saying there would be no peace without such recognition.“Let’s see if those international players” who have been pressuring Israel to cut a deal, he said bitterly, in an apparent dig at US Secretary of State John Kerry among others, “will make clear to the Palestinians the consequences for them” of negotiations failing.

Referring to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s statements in an interview to The New York Times on Monday, in which the Palestinian leader detailed his terms for peace with Israel but said he would refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish nation-state, Netanyahu said Abbas “knows that there will not be a deal without recognition of the nation-state.”Speaking at the weekly Likud-Yisrael Beytenu faction meeting, Netanyahu said it was “absurd” to demand that Israel recognize a Palestinian state without reciprocation. He called on the international community to exert pressure on the Palestinians and “make clear to them the repercussions of not reaching an agreement with Israel.” Expressing dismay at international pressure on Israel for greater compromise — pressure backed up by warnings over boycotts and the isolation of Israel — Netanyahu demanded that the world press Abbas for compromise.“No pressure” applied to Israel, he added, “will cause me to abandon the vital interests of the State of Israel, first and foremost the security of the citizens of Israel.”Netanyahu spoke Sunday night with Kerry, who at the weekend had warned that Israel faced boycotts and delegitimization if the peace talks failed. Several leading right-wing politicians slammed Kerry over those remarks, calling them threats; the State Department clarified that the secretary had been warning of the dangers of failure, not issuing threats.In a statement Monday about the call, Netanyahu said Kerry had made clear once again “that he opposes boycotts against Israel. This is an important clarification. It maintains the traditional American policy against the Arab boycott of Israel, in which the US both opposed and acted against such boycotts.”Netanyahu added that, “We trust the United States will continue to actively oppose any boycotts against Israel. The peace process is delicate. There may be periods of misunderstandings and disagreements. The best way to clarify misunderstandings or express differences of opinion is by substantively discussing the issues and not by engaging in personal attacks.”Netanyahu and Kerry also discussed the secretary’s “framework” proposals for a peace treaty, which he hopes will serve as the basis for peace talks continuing to the end of 2014 in search of an accord. The current talks are set to end in April.Chief Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat told Palestinian television on Monday that there was no point extending the talks past April, since Israel was not making, and would not make, the necessary decisions to enable a peace agreement. Persistent reports in recent weeks have suggested the PA intends to reject Kerry’s framework document, though these reports have not been confirmed. Israel’s Channel 2 reported on Friday night that Netanyahu and his senior colleagues intend to accept Kerry’s terms as a non-binding basis for further negotiations.In the New York Times interview Monday, Abbas detailed his vision for a Palestinian state, which he said would be demilitarized with international peacekeepers on its borders. He said he would agree to an IDF presence in the future state for up to five years before a full pullout; an Israeli official promptly rejected this “artificial timeline.”However, Abbas was adamant that the Palestinians would not recognize Israel as Jewish, saying the notion was “out of the question.”Erekat also rejected the idea of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state over the weekend. Speaking at a Munich security conference, on a panel with his Israeli counterpart Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Erekat said the demand was unacceptable: “When you say ‘accept Israel as a Jewish state’ you are asking me to change my narrative,” he claimed, asserting that his ancestors lived in the region “5,500 years before [Biblical Israelite leader] Joshua Bin-Nun came and burned my hometown, Jericho.”Haviv Rettig Gur and Spencer Ho contributed to this report.

Quartet to meet in Munich over stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks

By REUTERS

01/31/2014 14:23-JERUSALEM POST

Ashton, Kerry, UN's Ban, and other leaders to discuss how to help both sides reach "difficult and bold decisions."

US SECRETARY OF STATE John Kerry walks with EU official Catherine Ashton in Washington, Feb 14 Photo: REUTERS

MUNICH, Germany - Top officials from the United Nations, United States, Russia and European Union will meet on Saturday to discuss how they can help US Secretary of State John Kerry's drive for a Middle East peace deal, the EU said on Friday.The meeting of the so-called Quartet of Middle East peace mediators will be held in Munich on the sidelines of the annual security conference there.EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she would chair the meeting with Kerry, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Quartet envoy Tony Blair, the former British prime minister.
"This meeting takes place in a moment when difficult and bold decisions need to be made. The dividends of peace for Israelis and Palestinians are enormous," Ashton said in a statement."I hope that together we can help those decisions to become a reality to continue working towards a negotiated peace agreement, setting an end to the conflict and fulfilling the legitimate aspirations of both parties," she said.Kerry has toiled for six months to push Palestinians and Israelis towards an elusive peace deal to end their generations-old conflict.
A handful of diplomats remain hopeful he will defy the pessimists and secure at least a framework deal in the coming weeks to allow detailed talks to continue beyond the original nine-month deadline, which expires on April 29.But, with both sides far apart on many core issues including borders, security, the right of return for Palestinian refugees and the future status of Jerusalem, many Palestinians and Israelis believe the talks are going nowhere.

Ashton renews EU promise of support for Palestinians and Israelis

Sunday, 02 February 2014 15:59- MIDDLE EAST MONITOR

Ashton made special mention of negotiators Saeb Erekat and Tzipi Livni for their work pushing the process forward

Europe's High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton has said that the EU and the Middle East Quartet will provide "unprecedented" support for the Palestinians and Israelis if they succeed in reaching an agreement.In press statements following the Quartet meeting in Munich on Saturday, Ashton said that its members are committed to their work and are exerting huge efforts in this regard. She also stated that US Secretary of State John Kerry and his team are trying to broker an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.Praising the efforts made by PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and their commitment to the peace process, Ashton made special mention of negotiators Saeb Erekat and Tzipi Livni for their work pushing the process forward.She added that the Quartet meeting focused on the peace process and the importance of its success, pointing out that it will continue to provide support for a deal between Palestinians and Israelis based on the two-state solution. She expressed her conviction that the two sides will reach a deal, but what is important is to gain the support of the Quartet as soon as the agreement is reached.The meeting in Munich was attended by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Secretary of State Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the Quartet's Middle East Peace Envoy, Tony Blair."This meeting takes place at a moment when difficult and bold decisions need to be made," said Ashton. "The peace dividends for Israelis and Palestinians are enormous."

Tony Blair visits Egypt to discuss peace process, terrorism and religious extremism

Wednesday, 29 January 2014 16:26- MIDDLE EAST MONITOR

Blair published an article on Sunday in the Observer newspaper saying that 'religious extremism is the most dangerous phenomenon, which spreads easily through the Internet'

The International Quartet envoy to the peace process, Tony Blair, has arrived in Cairo on Wednesday for a short visit that will last only a few hours.Egyptian sources said that Britain's former Prime Minister will meet with a number of Egyptian officials to discuss the latest developments in the region, in particular the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and ways to push it forward, in addition to the fight against terrorism and religious extremism.Blair published an article on Sunday in the Observer newspaper saying that "religious extremism is the most dangerous phenomenon, which spreads easily through the Internet." Blair said in his article that "this century's wars are more likely to be a result of cultural or religious differences and not extreme political ideologies like the wars of the twentieth century."Blair announced that a new online forum and database have been established through his "Faith Foundation" in collaboration with Harvard's Faculty of Theology, which he hopes to become the largest source of information and discussion about religion and conflict in the world.

Israel said set to accept Kerry’s framework proposals

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat rejects Israel as a Jewish state, claims his ancestors were in Jericho 5,500 years before Joshua

By Yifa Yaakov and Times of Israel staff February 2, 2014, 2:56 am 54-The Times of Israel

Israel is set to give its wary assent to US Secretary of State John Kerry’s framework peace proposal as the basis for continuing talks with the Palestinian Authority through to the end of 2014, Channel 2 news reported on Saturday night.The TV report said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman are all inclining to accept the US framework terms, some of which were detailed by Martin Indyk, the State Department’s lead envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, in a conference call with American Jewish leaders on Thursday. The framework document would have to be finalized in the next few weeks, ahead of a scheduled fourth and final phase of Palestinian prisoner releases set for March, the report said.The US framework document, whose terms will not have to be signed off as fully binding by the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships, provides for talks on Palestinian statehood based on the pre-1967 lines with land swaps to enable 75 to 80 percent of settlers to come under Israeli sovereignty, relates to Israel as the Jewish state, provides for compensation for refugees but no Palestinian “right of return,” and does not go into detail on the fate of Jerusalem, Indyk indicated.Well-placed political sources told The Times of Israel at the weekend, meanwhile, that Netanyahu’s agreement to continue peace talks on the basis of the framework proposal need not provoke a coalition crisis with the right-wing Jewish Home party. Provided the framework deal was not binding and was not brought to a government vote, the sources said, the party’s leader, Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett, would likely not choose to bolt the coalition over it.Reports in recent weeks have indicated that the Palestinian Authority is set to reject the framework document, but these reports have not been confirmed.Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator over the weekend again ruled out the notion of Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Speaking at a Munich conference, on a panel with his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni, Erekat said the demand was unacceptable: “When you say ‘accept Israel as a Jewish state’ you are asking me to change my narrative,” he claimed, asserting that his ancestors lived in the region “5,500 years before Joshua Bin-Nun came and burned my hometown Jericho.”Several Israeli right-wing politicians castigated Kerry on Saturday for comments he made at the same event, the Munich Security Conference, warning Israel of dire consequences if the current peace effort fails. Kerry said he was utterly certain that the current status quo was “not sustainable… It’s illusionary. There’s a momentary prosperity. There’s a momentary peace.” But that would end if the talks failed, he said, noting that already Israel was facing increased delegitimization and boycott threats. (A series of banks and pension funds in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Holland have announced a cessation of dealings with Israeli banks and companies in recent days because of those firms’ West Bank activities.) Kerry said failure to reach a peace deal would damage Israel’s capacity to be “a democratic state with the particular special Jewish character that is a central part of the narrative and of the future.”The secretary also responded to last month’s highly critical comments about him by Ya’alon, who apologized after being quoted calling him “obsessive” and “messianic” in his push for peace. Kerry said he was “surprised” by the reports, and that rather than being obsessive or fanatical, he and his team were “just working hard, because the consequences of failure are unacceptable.”In response to the secretary’s warnings about the delegitimizing and boycotting of Israel, Bennett, the economy and trade minister, accused Kerry of incitement and of serving as a “mouthpiece” for anti-Semitic elements attempting to boycott Israel. To Kerry “and all advisers,” Bennett wrote in a Facebook post, “the Jewish people are stronger than the threats against them.” He added that the Jews would not “surrender their land” as a result of economic pressure.

“Only security will bring economic stability, not a terrorist state close to Ben-Gurion Airport. We expect our friends around the world to stand by our side to face the anti-Semitic attempts to boycott Israel, not to be their mouthpiece,” Bennett added. ”In any case, we knew how to stay strong in the past and we will now as well.”Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) was also quick to respond to Kerry’s comments. ”Kerry said today that Israel’s economic prosperity and security are an illusion, and that if peace talks fail, Israel will be boycotted. But the truth is that the only illusions are the peace slogans Kerry is trying to sell to Israel. Slogans that cover up an existential threat to the State of Israel,” Ariel posted late Saturday on his official Facebook page. ”The Palestinians can hardly believe how lucky they are to have such a ‘fair’ mediator,” he added. “This is what incitement looks like.”Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely, meanwhile, said Kerry’s “threats of an unprecedented boycotts” were “attempts to intimidate Israel in an effort to impose a dangerous agreement that runs contrary to the position of the Israeli government.” She said such an agreement, would “jeopardize Israel’s security,” and be “worse than any economic boycott.”Likud MK and deputy minister Ofir Akunis also lambasted Kerry for his remarks, saying they were indicative of Washington’s “aggressive policy towards Israel.” He added, “We were here before Kerry, we’ll be here after him as well.”Israeli government sources quoted by Channel 2 urged Kerry to pressure the Palestinians not Israel, and said that his warnings to Israel only made the Palestinians more obdurate in their positions.

US offered Palestinians a lease deal for isolated settlements

Palestinian sources tell The Times of Israel that a time frame of several decades was discussed; PA categorically rejected idea

By Avi Issacharoff January 31, 2014, 6:43 pm 14-The Times of Israel

US representatives in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians offered Ramallah a “lease” deal for West Bank settlements that lie outside the major settlement blocs. The Palestinian Authority rejected such a deal outright.Palestinian sources who spoke to The Times of Israel Friday said the offer referred to large settlements, particularly those in the area of Ramallah, including Eli, Ofra and Beit El. Other sources, however, claimed that the proposal referred to all settlements outside the major blocs, including those that are considered isolated.Israel is expected to retain major settlement blocs in any eventual deal based on 1967 lines with land swaps.The objective of the proposal was to leave the settlements as a sort of Israeli territory, in the heart of a Palestinian state, without having the area considered part of the State of Israel. This way, Israel would not need to uproot settlements that are home to tens of thousands of people outside the blocs.The idea, according to senior Palestinian sources, was presented as an “American thought,” even though it was clear to the Palestinian negotiating team that it had originated on the Israeli side.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he has no intention to forcibly evacuate settlers from the West Bank. ”I do not intend to remove a single settlement, [and] I do not intend to displace a single Israeli,” he said earlier this month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. An official in Netanyahu’s office on Sunday told The Times of Israel that Netanyahu wanted settlers in non-Israeli-sovereign areas to have the choice — to stay put under Palestinian rule or move to locations under Israeli rule.The Prime Minister’s Office later attempted to characterize Netanyahu’s position as supposed spin meant to elicit a “No” from the Palestinians that would enable Israel to portray Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as rejecting possible peace terms. But Israel’s central idea, according to the same senior Palestinian officials, wasn’t to leave the settlements under Palestinian sovereignty, but rather to lease them for a period of several decades.

The exact time frame wasn’t settled, but it was clear that a period of more than 50 years was being discussed. In exchange, the PA would have been compensated financially.

The Palestinians categorically rejected the idea. The PA took an unequivocal position on the issue during negotiations: if the settlers would like to remain on land belonging to a state of Palestine, they must do so as Palestinian citizens for all purposes, who abide by the laws of the new state.