DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he ( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant (PEACE TREATY) with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE ANIMAL SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
JEREMIAH 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
JEREMIAH 8:11
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
ISAIAH 33:8
8 The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant,(7 YR TREATY) he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.(THE WORLD LEADER-WAR MONGER CALLS HIMSELF GOD)
JERUSALEM DIVIDED
GENESIS 25:20-26
20 And Isaac was forty years old (A BIBLE GENERATION NUMBER=1967 + 40=2007+) when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
22 And the children (2 NATIONS IN HER-ISRAEL-ARABS) struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels;(ISRAEL AND THE ARABS) and the one people shall be stronger than the other people;(ISRAEL STRONGER THAN ARABS) and the elder shall serve the younger.(LITERALLY ISRAEL THE YOUNGER RULES (ISSAC)(JACOB-LATER NAME CHANGED TO ISRAEL) OVER THE OLDER ARABS (ISHMAEL)(ESAU)
24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
25 And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.(THE OLDER AN ARAB)
26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob:(THE YOUNGER-ISRAELI) and Isaac was threescore (60) years old when she bare them.(1967 + 60=2027)(COULD BE THE LAST GENERATION WHEN JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AMOUNG THE 2 TWINS)(THE 2 TWINS WANT JERUSALEM-THE DIVISION OF JERUSALEM TODAY)(AND WHOS IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM TODAY-THE YOUNGER ISSAC-JACOB-ISRAEL)(AND WHO WANTS JERUSALEM DIVIDED-THE OLDER,ESAU-ISHMAEL (THE ARABS)
ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
Abbas, Haniyeh talk of a speedy reconciliation-Gaza-based Hamas leader urges PA president to resist external pressures to back out of newly forged unity pact-By Times of Israel staff April 25, 2014, 11:36 pm 0-The Times of Israel
In their first conversation since the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation pact was announced this week, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas spoke on the phone Friday with Gaza-based Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who stressed the importance of beginning immediately to implement the fledgling agreement between the rival Palestinian factions.According to the Maan News Agency, Haniyeh also urged Abbas to not succumb to external pressures placed on him to back out of the deal.“Haniyeh called for efforts to create a political and economic safety net that would strengthen trust between the West Bank and Gaza,” reported Maan.Meanwhile, in Ramallah, the Palestinian prime minister in the West Bank, Rami Hamdallah, tendered his resignation to Abbas on Friday evening, in another move that clears the path for a unity government. It was not immediately clear whether Abbas had accepted the resignation.In Washington, US State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters that Abbas had spoken to Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday, and that he reassured the top US diplomat that a Palestinian unity government would recognize Israel.According to Psaki, the PA president told Kerry that the unity government would be his government and represent his policies. He is said to have promised Kerry that along with recognition of Israel, the future government would abide by past agreements and renounce violence.“It’s a positive thing,” she said.A Palestinian official told The Times of Israel on Friday that Abbas would formally present the political platform of his anticipated new government — including the provisions promised to Kerry — to the PLO Central Committee on Friday.Earlier Friday, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Sky News in Arabic that Hamas is not a terror organization and never will be.Erekat added in the Sky News Arabic interview that Hamas is not required to recognize Israel, since there are parties in Israel which don’t recognize the state of Palestine.“Has [Israel's Prime Minister] Netanyahu asked the Jewish Home party [an Orthodox-nationalist coalition partner] to recognize the state of Palestine?” Erekat asked. “Has Netanyahu himself recognized the state of Palestine? [Yair] Lapid [head of the centrist Yesh Atid coalition party] has not recognized the state of Palestine,” he said. Thus “Hamas is not required to recognize Israel.”Erekat said that the PLO was responsible for negotiations with Israel. “Israel needs to understand that authority over negotiations belongs to the PLO, and all Palestinian governments so far, including the one of Ismail Haniyeh, have agreed that the authority over negotiations belongs to the PLO and to the government.”Were the PLO to reach an agreement with Israel, Erekat said, it would be submitted to a referendum.
Abbas to announce his Hamas-backed government will recognize Israel-After Israel suspends peace talks over Fatah-Hamas unity pact, PA leader to set out policy guidelines in address to PLO panel Saturday-By Avi Issacharoff April 25, 2014, 8:37 pm Updated: April 25, 2014, 10:14 pm 18-The Times of Israel
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will on Saturday formally present the political platform of his anticipated new government, in the wake of his Fatah faction’s unity pact with Hamas, a Palestinian official told The Times of Israel on Friday.The official, who asked not to be named, said Abbas would tell the PLO’s Central Committee that the new government — scheduled to be established within the next five weeks — would recognize Israel and accept previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements. The government would also be committed to a two-state solution, with an independent Palestine alongside Israel.The new government would support continued negotiations with Israel in order to achieve the two-state solution, the official said.US State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters that Abbas had made similar assurances to US Secretary of State John Kerry in a phone call Thursday night.“It’s a positive thing,” she said.Abbas, in his address, will stress that the new government will be comprised of technocrats rather than politicians, according to the official who spoke with The Times of Israel. There will be no Fatah or Hamas representatives in the government, he added.The official expressed criticism of Israel’s bitter response to the unity pact. The PA’s support for Fatah-Hamas reconciliation, he said, was designed to boost peace efforts, not to cause their collapse. “We knew in advance that Hamas would agree to the conditions that we and the Egyptians had put to them,” he said, “to the effect that the new government would be headed by Abu Mazen [Abbas] and would operate according to his directives, and that an agreed date would be fixed for Palestinian elections.”The economic sanctions that Israel said Thursday it would impose on the PA — including the use of taxes collected by Israel on the PA’s behalf to offset PA debts to Israel — were likely to lead to the weakening of the PA’s security apparatus, he also said.The Israeli inner cabinet voted unanimously on Thursday to suspend negotiations with the PA in the wake of the Fatah-Hamas deal. Ministers decided that Israel “will not negotiate with a Palestinian government that incorporates Hamas, a terrorist organization that seeks the destruction of Israel,” a statement said.Israeli officials said the government decision was carefully worded so as not to rule out a possible resumption of peace talks if, in the next five weeks, Abbas fails to agree with Hamas on the composition of a unity government as scheduled. At the same time, the wording was also designed to make plain that Israel will not negotiate with any Palestinian government that rests on Hamas support even if there are actually no Hamas ministers sitting around the cabinet table. According to Psaki, “[Kerry's] view is this is a moment of transition and part of the process. We are in a holding period where parties need to figure out what is next.”“We have always thought there could be a point where we needed to pause and both sides needed to look at what was possible. And we’re clearly at that point now,” she told reporters, adding that the US can’t force the parties to cooperate.
Israel was ready to allow wide-scale Palestinian building in key West Bank areas-Offer was made to PA negotiators on night before talks collapsed; Egypt played quiet role in Fatah-Hamas unity negotiations-By Avi Issacharoff April 25, 2014, 5:34 pm-The Times of Israel
On the night before Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts collapsed over the new Fatah-Hamas unity pact, Israel offered the Palestinians a package of incentives to extend the talks, including permission to begin wide-scale construction projects in West Bank areas that are under Israeli control.Israel’s unprecedented readiness to sanction considerable Palestinian building in “Area C” parts of the West Bank — where Israel maintains overall control — was made clear during talks on Tuesday night between Israeli negotiators Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Molcho and their Palestinian counterparts Saeb Erekat and PA intelligence chief Majd Freij, The Times of Israel was told Friday.The offer was part of a wider package discussed by the sides as they worked to agree on terms for peace talks to continue beyond the April 29 deadline. The Israeli negotiators also reiterated Jerusalem’s readiness to agree to a significant prisoner release and a partial freeze on building in West Bank settlements.Palestinian sources said Friday that the two sides agreed to discuss the construction offer further in the next session of their talks, which was tentatively set for Wednesday evening or Thursday morning. However, on Wednesday afternoon, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction and the Islamic extremist Hamas group announced in Gaza that they had reached a unity agreement providing for the establishment of a new Palestinian government in five weeks and subsequent Palestinian elections. Israel responded first by cancelling the next Erekat-Livni meeting, and then by suspending all further peace talks so long as the Palestinian reconciliation process continues. On Thursday night, Livni slammed Abbas for making a series of “bad decisions,” including agreeing to a partnership with the “terrorist” Hamas that left Israel no choice but to suspend talks.The Israeli offer to sanction large-scale Palestinian construction in Area C had not previously been presented in the talks, and Palestinian sources said they had intended to discuss it further. They also said that the Palestinian negotiators on Tuesday reiterated their demand, as a condition for extending the peace process, for a complete settlement freeze and an intensive three-month negotiating focus on resolving the borders of a Palestinian state.An Israeli TV report on Thursday night said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was indeed ready to begin final border discussions. The prime minister did not intend to present a final border proposal, but rather had planned to present to the Palestinians, via the Israeli negotiating team, a map that would have served as a starting point for comprehensive final border discussions, according to the Channel 10 report, which did not cite a source for the claim. In addition, Netanyahu was prepared to halt new construction in the settlements, but insisted that building continue for projects already underway, the report said. Egyptian sources told The Times of Israel on Friday, meanwhile, that leading presidential candidate Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and the regime in Cairo knew in advance about the Fatah-Hamas agreement. Abbas personally briefed el-Sissi on the Fatah-Hamas contacts when they met two weeks ago in Cairo. By contrast, both the Israeli and the American governments appear to have been blindsided by a move that Israel denounced and the US called “disappointing.”To enable the negotiations that led to the deal, Cairo allowed Moussa Abu Marzouk, the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, to cross from Egypt into Gaza. Talks between Abu Marzouk and senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad also took place in Cairo, hosted by Egypt’s intelligence apparatus.Some Egyptian sources on Friday expressed shock at Israel’s bitter response to the unity pact, arguing that the deal meant that Hamas was accepting longstanding Israeli and international demands regarding recognition of Israel, and that the intended new Palestinian government, responsible for the West Bank and Gaza, would be controlled overall by Abbas, precisely as Israel has long demanded.Gavriel Fiske and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Kerry: Israel, Palestinians must make ‘compromises’-US says talks have reached a ‘difficult point,’ but insists there is ‘always a way forward’-By AFP April 24, 2014, 11:21 pm 12-The Times of Israel
US Secretary of State John Kerry Thursday urged Israel and the Palestinians to make the compromises needed to forge ahead with peace talks, admitting the negotiations had reached “a difficult point.”“There’s always a way forward, but the leaders have to make the compromises to do that. We may see a way forward, but if they’re not willing to make the compromises necessary it becomes very elusive,” Kerry told reporters.He was speaking only hours after Israel said it was pulling out of the talks, angered by a Palestinian reconciliation deal to bring together the Palestine Liberation Organization and the militant Hamas faction.“We will never give up our hope or our commitment for the possibilities of peace. We believe it is the only way to go, but right now obviously it’s at a very difficult point, and the leaders themselves have to make decisions,” Kerry said as he met his Norwegian counterpart Foreign Minister Borge Brende.“It’s up to them,” he added.The two sides had agreed to resume negotiations in July and to keep talking for at least nine months. But with the clock ticking down to Tuesday’s deadline, the US-backed talks appear to have hit a brick wall.State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said it has “always been up to the parties to make the choices needed to pursue a path to peace.”But she refused to declare the negotiations over, saying “this process needs to work its way through,” recalling that “there have been ups and downs” throughout.
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he ( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant (PEACE TREATY) with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE ANIMAL SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
JEREMIAH 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
JEREMIAH 8:11
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
ISAIAH 33:8
8 The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant,(7 YR TREATY) he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.(THE WORLD LEADER-WAR MONGER CALLS HIMSELF GOD)
JERUSALEM DIVIDED
GENESIS 25:20-26
20 And Isaac was forty years old (A BIBLE GENERATION NUMBER=1967 + 40=2007+) when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
22 And the children (2 NATIONS IN HER-ISRAEL-ARABS) struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels;(ISRAEL AND THE ARABS) and the one people shall be stronger than the other people;(ISRAEL STRONGER THAN ARABS) and the elder shall serve the younger.(LITERALLY ISRAEL THE YOUNGER RULES (ISSAC)(JACOB-LATER NAME CHANGED TO ISRAEL) OVER THE OLDER ARABS (ISHMAEL)(ESAU)
24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
25 And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.(THE OLDER AN ARAB)
26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob:(THE YOUNGER-ISRAELI) and Isaac was threescore (60) years old when she bare them.(1967 + 60=2027)(COULD BE THE LAST GENERATION WHEN JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AMOUNG THE 2 TWINS)(THE 2 TWINS WANT JERUSALEM-THE DIVISION OF JERUSALEM TODAY)(AND WHOS IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM TODAY-THE YOUNGER ISSAC-JACOB-ISRAEL)(AND WHO WANTS JERUSALEM DIVIDED-THE OLDER,ESAU-ISHMAEL (THE ARABS)
ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
Abbas, Haniyeh talk of a speedy reconciliation-Gaza-based Hamas leader urges PA president to resist external pressures to back out of newly forged unity pact-By Times of Israel staff April 25, 2014, 11:36 pm 0-The Times of Israel
In their first conversation since the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation pact was announced this week, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas spoke on the phone Friday with Gaza-based Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who stressed the importance of beginning immediately to implement the fledgling agreement between the rival Palestinian factions.According to the Maan News Agency, Haniyeh also urged Abbas to not succumb to external pressures placed on him to back out of the deal.“Haniyeh called for efforts to create a political and economic safety net that would strengthen trust between the West Bank and Gaza,” reported Maan.Meanwhile, in Ramallah, the Palestinian prime minister in the West Bank, Rami Hamdallah, tendered his resignation to Abbas on Friday evening, in another move that clears the path for a unity government. It was not immediately clear whether Abbas had accepted the resignation.In Washington, US State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters that Abbas had spoken to Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday, and that he reassured the top US diplomat that a Palestinian unity government would recognize Israel.According to Psaki, the PA president told Kerry that the unity government would be his government and represent his policies. He is said to have promised Kerry that along with recognition of Israel, the future government would abide by past agreements and renounce violence.“It’s a positive thing,” she said.A Palestinian official told The Times of Israel on Friday that Abbas would formally present the political platform of his anticipated new government — including the provisions promised to Kerry — to the PLO Central Committee on Friday.Earlier Friday, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Sky News in Arabic that Hamas is not a terror organization and never will be.Erekat added in the Sky News Arabic interview that Hamas is not required to recognize Israel, since there are parties in Israel which don’t recognize the state of Palestine.“Has [Israel's Prime Minister] Netanyahu asked the Jewish Home party [an Orthodox-nationalist coalition partner] to recognize the state of Palestine?” Erekat asked. “Has Netanyahu himself recognized the state of Palestine? [Yair] Lapid [head of the centrist Yesh Atid coalition party] has not recognized the state of Palestine,” he said. Thus “Hamas is not required to recognize Israel.”Erekat said that the PLO was responsible for negotiations with Israel. “Israel needs to understand that authority over negotiations belongs to the PLO, and all Palestinian governments so far, including the one of Ismail Haniyeh, have agreed that the authority over negotiations belongs to the PLO and to the government.”Were the PLO to reach an agreement with Israel, Erekat said, it would be submitted to a referendum.
Abbas to announce his Hamas-backed government will recognize Israel-After Israel suspends peace talks over Fatah-Hamas unity pact, PA leader to set out policy guidelines in address to PLO panel Saturday-By Avi Issacharoff April 25, 2014, 8:37 pm Updated: April 25, 2014, 10:14 pm 18-The Times of Israel
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will on Saturday formally present the political platform of his anticipated new government, in the wake of his Fatah faction’s unity pact with Hamas, a Palestinian official told The Times of Israel on Friday.The official, who asked not to be named, said Abbas would tell the PLO’s Central Committee that the new government — scheduled to be established within the next five weeks — would recognize Israel and accept previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements. The government would also be committed to a two-state solution, with an independent Palestine alongside Israel.The new government would support continued negotiations with Israel in order to achieve the two-state solution, the official said.US State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters that Abbas had made similar assurances to US Secretary of State John Kerry in a phone call Thursday night.“It’s a positive thing,” she said.Abbas, in his address, will stress that the new government will be comprised of technocrats rather than politicians, according to the official who spoke with The Times of Israel. There will be no Fatah or Hamas representatives in the government, he added.The official expressed criticism of Israel’s bitter response to the unity pact. The PA’s support for Fatah-Hamas reconciliation, he said, was designed to boost peace efforts, not to cause their collapse. “We knew in advance that Hamas would agree to the conditions that we and the Egyptians had put to them,” he said, “to the effect that the new government would be headed by Abu Mazen [Abbas] and would operate according to his directives, and that an agreed date would be fixed for Palestinian elections.”The economic sanctions that Israel said Thursday it would impose on the PA — including the use of taxes collected by Israel on the PA’s behalf to offset PA debts to Israel — were likely to lead to the weakening of the PA’s security apparatus, he also said.The Israeli inner cabinet voted unanimously on Thursday to suspend negotiations with the PA in the wake of the Fatah-Hamas deal. Ministers decided that Israel “will not negotiate with a Palestinian government that incorporates Hamas, a terrorist organization that seeks the destruction of Israel,” a statement said.Israeli officials said the government decision was carefully worded so as not to rule out a possible resumption of peace talks if, in the next five weeks, Abbas fails to agree with Hamas on the composition of a unity government as scheduled. At the same time, the wording was also designed to make plain that Israel will not negotiate with any Palestinian government that rests on Hamas support even if there are actually no Hamas ministers sitting around the cabinet table. According to Psaki, “[Kerry's] view is this is a moment of transition and part of the process. We are in a holding period where parties need to figure out what is next.”“We have always thought there could be a point where we needed to pause and both sides needed to look at what was possible. And we’re clearly at that point now,” she told reporters, adding that the US can’t force the parties to cooperate.
Israel was ready to allow wide-scale Palestinian building in key West Bank areas-Offer was made to PA negotiators on night before talks collapsed; Egypt played quiet role in Fatah-Hamas unity negotiations-By Avi Issacharoff April 25, 2014, 5:34 pm-The Times of Israel
On the night before Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts collapsed over the new Fatah-Hamas unity pact, Israel offered the Palestinians a package of incentives to extend the talks, including permission to begin wide-scale construction projects in West Bank areas that are under Israeli control.Israel’s unprecedented readiness to sanction considerable Palestinian building in “Area C” parts of the West Bank — where Israel maintains overall control — was made clear during talks on Tuesday night between Israeli negotiators Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Molcho and their Palestinian counterparts Saeb Erekat and PA intelligence chief Majd Freij, The Times of Israel was told Friday.The offer was part of a wider package discussed by the sides as they worked to agree on terms for peace talks to continue beyond the April 29 deadline. The Israeli negotiators also reiterated Jerusalem’s readiness to agree to a significant prisoner release and a partial freeze on building in West Bank settlements.Palestinian sources said Friday that the two sides agreed to discuss the construction offer further in the next session of their talks, which was tentatively set for Wednesday evening or Thursday morning. However, on Wednesday afternoon, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction and the Islamic extremist Hamas group announced in Gaza that they had reached a unity agreement providing for the establishment of a new Palestinian government in five weeks and subsequent Palestinian elections. Israel responded first by cancelling the next Erekat-Livni meeting, and then by suspending all further peace talks so long as the Palestinian reconciliation process continues. On Thursday night, Livni slammed Abbas for making a series of “bad decisions,” including agreeing to a partnership with the “terrorist” Hamas that left Israel no choice but to suspend talks.The Israeli offer to sanction large-scale Palestinian construction in Area C had not previously been presented in the talks, and Palestinian sources said they had intended to discuss it further. They also said that the Palestinian negotiators on Tuesday reiterated their demand, as a condition for extending the peace process, for a complete settlement freeze and an intensive three-month negotiating focus on resolving the borders of a Palestinian state.An Israeli TV report on Thursday night said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was indeed ready to begin final border discussions. The prime minister did not intend to present a final border proposal, but rather had planned to present to the Palestinians, via the Israeli negotiating team, a map that would have served as a starting point for comprehensive final border discussions, according to the Channel 10 report, which did not cite a source for the claim. In addition, Netanyahu was prepared to halt new construction in the settlements, but insisted that building continue for projects already underway, the report said. Egyptian sources told The Times of Israel on Friday, meanwhile, that leading presidential candidate Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and the regime in Cairo knew in advance about the Fatah-Hamas agreement. Abbas personally briefed el-Sissi on the Fatah-Hamas contacts when they met two weeks ago in Cairo. By contrast, both the Israeli and the American governments appear to have been blindsided by a move that Israel denounced and the US called “disappointing.”To enable the negotiations that led to the deal, Cairo allowed Moussa Abu Marzouk, the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, to cross from Egypt into Gaza. Talks between Abu Marzouk and senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad also took place in Cairo, hosted by Egypt’s intelligence apparatus.Some Egyptian sources on Friday expressed shock at Israel’s bitter response to the unity pact, arguing that the deal meant that Hamas was accepting longstanding Israeli and international demands regarding recognition of Israel, and that the intended new Palestinian government, responsible for the West Bank and Gaza, would be controlled overall by Abbas, precisely as Israel has long demanded.Gavriel Fiske and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Kerry: Israel, Palestinians must make ‘compromises’-US says talks have reached a ‘difficult point,’ but insists there is ‘always a way forward’-By AFP April 24, 2014, 11:21 pm 12-The Times of Israel
US Secretary of State John Kerry Thursday urged Israel and the Palestinians to make the compromises needed to forge ahead with peace talks, admitting the negotiations had reached “a difficult point.”“There’s always a way forward, but the leaders have to make the compromises to do that. We may see a way forward, but if they’re not willing to make the compromises necessary it becomes very elusive,” Kerry told reporters.He was speaking only hours after Israel said it was pulling out of the talks, angered by a Palestinian reconciliation deal to bring together the Palestine Liberation Organization and the militant Hamas faction.“We will never give up our hope or our commitment for the possibilities of peace. We believe it is the only way to go, but right now obviously it’s at a very difficult point, and the leaders themselves have to make decisions,” Kerry said as he met his Norwegian counterpart Foreign Minister Borge Brende.“It’s up to them,” he added.The two sides had agreed to resume negotiations in July and to keep talking for at least nine months. But with the clock ticking down to Tuesday’s deadline, the US-backed talks appear to have hit a brick wall.State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said it has “always been up to the parties to make the choices needed to pursue a path to peace.”But she refused to declare the negotiations over, saying “this process needs to work its way through,” recalling that “there have been ups and downs” throughout.
