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Israelis, Palestinians to meet but prospects bleak
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem January 1, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Ronen Zvulun
AMMAN |
AMMAN (Reuters) - Israeli and Palestinian negotiators meet in Jordan Tuesday alongside international mediators trying to revive their stalled peace talks, but neither side is raising hopes they can end more than a year of deadlock.
Negotiations stalled in late 2010 after Israel refused to renew a partial freeze on Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, as demanded by Palestinians.
The Palestinians say they cannot hold talks while Israel cements its hold on land it captured in a 1967 war and on which they intend to establish an independent state. Israel says peacemaking should have no preconditions.
"The only way to reach an agreement is through talks," Israeli cabinet minister Dan Meridor said. "There is an opening to renew negotiations... We must hope that things will work out but it does not depend only on us."
Palestinians were also downbeat ahead of the Amman meeting.
"We should not impose on this meeting a heavy load," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said. "I do not know if the Israeli side is bringing anything new, or if they are willing to put their position on the table."
The talks at the Jordanian Foreign Ministry bring together Erekat, Israel's Yitzhak Molcho and representatives of the Quartet of Middle East mediators - the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
A ministry spokesman said earlier this week that the meeting aimed at reaching common ground to allow a resumption of direct talks between Israel the Palestinians, with the goal of reaching a peace accord by the end of this year.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also urged both sides to "take advantage of this opportunity.
"The need for a lasting peace is more urgent than ever. The status quo is not sustainable and the parties must act boldly to advance the cause of peace," Clinton said.
NO RESUMPTION
But a senior figure in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's umbrella PLO executive said Israel and the Palestinians were simply fulfilling a request by the Quartet to present their positions on the issues of security and borders.
"This is not a resumption of negotiations," Wasl Abu Yossef told Reuters in Ramallah, the seat of Abbas's administration.
A diplomat in Amman also said Tuesday's meeting was not expected to lead to a breakthrough. "To be realistic, it won't solve anything, (although) it could give new energy" to the process, the diplomat said.
Established a decade ago, the Quartet has in recent months taken a leading role in attempts to broker new negotiations, stepping in after U.S. President Barack Obama's administration failed to revive diplomacy.
Most countries deem Israel's West Bank settlements illegal. Israel disputes this, and says it would keep settlement blocs under any peace deal in accordance with understandings reached in 2004 with then-U.S. president George W. Bush.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government also criticizes Abbas for seeking a reconciliation with the Islamists of Hamas, who control Gaza and reject permanent co-existence with Israel. Abbas has also balked at Israel's demand that he recognize it as a Jewish state.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called on the Palestinian Authority to boycott Tuesday's meeting, saying it was part of a "policy of failure."
(Additional reporting by Ori Lewis in Jerusalem and Jihan Abdalla in Ramallah; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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The lame, recycled claim of the PA needing to abandon Hamas for their terror and refusal to recognize Israel seem to be forgetting their very status today is without a doubt a consequence of Israeli action. 2008 Black Gaza massacres (with about 1400 Gazans, mainly civilians, being slaughtered versus 13 Israelis), persistent retaliations never too precise (“collateral damage”), a crippling embargo that has stolen and broken the livelihoods of every man, woman, and child, and encroaching settlements that seem to grow by the day are not avenues to peace I’d say. To thrust the Gazan into such a dire situation, either by their consent (fear) or simple lack of choice (I’m not aware of a strong Fatah presence in what amounts to a prison), and then claim victimization seems to be the cry of scoundrels than respectable persons. And judging by the time bought, truly in the process of the “liquidation of Palestinian land” as Noam Chomsky and others stated, and the billions upon billions of dollars the US has given the Israelis in military aid, the victim card is a farce. Their policy is calculated and cold.
Any United States citizen should be bitter and disgusted considering the loss of life which we are now associated — only heightening US hatred in the region (fantastic calls for future jihadis all over the Mid-East if not abroad) and precious funds in this “age of austerity” being diverted from the schools, healthcare, retirement funds, or any other means of service for its own citizens in the stead of actual weapons of mass destruction (a missile going into an apartment complex slaughtering an entire family is quite massive in my eyes, eh, or their non-official nuclear program). Also AIPAC’s entrenchment into American politics is repulsive — with politicians falling over themselves with fascistic calls of love for a foreign state (service to your own countrymen first fellows) — does that not seem a bit unforgiving how easily our own politicians are bought and sold for a foreign land. I only have to recall the Diaspora campaign by the Israeli government to see the irony in American Jews having some “connection” to her, especially when Israel’s actions seem quite contrary to the Torah, US Constitution, UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and other texts valuing…life.
Finally, the recent UN action by the US was quite a sad and disgusting display of our binds. Decades have passed and the onus has been on the Palestinians from day one. Each day settlements grow larger and larger, devouring a future state, and we chose, in outright service to the Israelis, to blatantly and egregiously refuse any recourse for the Palestinians as time is running out or more lives are to be lost. Questions of loyalties aside, when following the United State’s official policy (for decades) concerning a two-state solution and merely adapting to the illegality of settlements which the US has done nothing about, what will negotiations accomplish for the Palestinians? Or, for that matter, the Israelis, considering peace hasn’t been a priority for them — and by extension the United States.
What diplomatic moron would call it that? There is no policy. Except the one that arabs hold universally; Israel has no right to exist.
This “IS” a waste of time. No words can sway the Arabs. None. And no ‘policy’ will be honored. Period. We all know that. If there was ever a ‘people’ who were not to be believed, the arabs would BE that people.
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