Palestinians accuse U.S. of killing peace prospects

[Proto Profile]

Palestinians accuse U.S. of killing peace prospects
By Jeffrey Heller – 43 mins ago


JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Pointing an accusing finger at the United States, the Palestinians on Sunday said Washington's backing for Israeli refusal to halt Jewish settlement expansion had killed any hope of reviving peace negotiations soon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, buoyed by new-found support from the Obama administration, urged the Palestinians to "get a grip" and drop their settlement freeze precondition for restarting talks suspended since December.

On a one-day Middle East visit on Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsed Israel's view that settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank should not be a bar to resuming negotiations -- contradicting the Palestinian position.

Netanyahu has proposed limiting building for now to some 3,000 settler homes already approved by Israel in the West Bank. He does not regard building in occupied East Jerusalem, annexed in defiance of international opposition, as settlement.

President Barack Obama himself, after persuading Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in September to meet Netanyahu in New York, called only for "restraint" in settlement, not the "freeze" he had previously proposed.

Stung by Obama's about-face and Clinton's remarks, the Palestinians voiced their frustration.

"The negotiations are in a state of paralysis, and the result of Israel's intransigence and America's back-peddling is that there is no hope of negotiations on the horizon," said Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah.

He said the Palestinians were calling for the Arab League to formulate a "unified Palestinian-Arab position" on the stalled peace process.

Netanyahu told his cabinet that U.S. envoy George Mitchell would continue efforts on Sunday to revive negotiations.

"We hope very much that the Palestinians will get a grip and engage in the diplomatic process," Netanyahu said. "It is in the interests of Israel and the Palestinians."

DOMESTIC PRESSURE

Abbas faces intense domestic pressure from Hamas Islamists who control the Gaza Strip, and any compromise on settlements could hurt him politically in a run-up to Palestinian elections he has scheduled for January 24. Hamas has rejected holding a vote.

Some 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem alongside 2.8 million Palestinians. Israel captured the territories in a 1967 war with its Arab neighbors. Palestinians say settlements could deny them a viable state.

A U.S.-backed peace "road map" of 2003 says Israel should halt settlement activity. Abbas, however, took part in a negotiating process launched at Annapolis in late 2007 by Obama's predecessor George W. Bush. Abbas suspended negotiations over Israel's offensive last December in the Gaza Strip.

Having invested considerable capital in seeking a solution for Palestinians and Israelis as part of a broader thrust to help stabilize the oil-rich Middle East, Obama faces an early setback in his presidency if the two sides refuse even to talk.

Netanyahu's coalition, including pro-settler groups, does not believe Abbas is strong enough to deliver Israel security in any deal. Some analysts see Netanyahu's cooperation with Obama's demand for a resumption of talks on establishing a Palestinian state as intended mainly to ensure U.S. support against Iran.

Palestinians warn that popular frustration with the failure to produce a statehood deal could spill over into an upsurge in violence, even if few have appetite for a broad new uprising.

(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Tom Perry and Joseph Nasr in Jerusalem; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Michael Roddy)

[Cornbread714 Profile]

Obama should have stuck with the freeze demand.

Israel is losing a lot of my respect and so is Obama. I really want to emphasize I am not any kind of racist or a paranoid anti-Zionist, but the heavy-handed game continues and it's wrong.

[Proto Profile]

i respect your opinion cornbread even if i don't fully agree with it ,

as i see it, the Palestinians are playing stubborn ,what does
it matter if the settlement expansion goes on or freeze , the most
important thing is to continue with the negotiations , in the final
agreement most likely most of those settlements will be demolished
or handed over or will be traded for other territories or whatever,
if israel want to waste money on that go ahead ,
doesn't mean it will change something in the end ,the most important
thing is to get an agreement and finish this parse .

[Cornbread714 Profile]

I respect your opinion, too.

It's a shame, it goes on and on and there is stubbornness aplenty on both sides.

BTW, did you happen to see this?

It's worth watching. We need more dialogue like this.

http://www.indecisionforever.com/2009/1 ... barghouti/

[Proto Profile]

It's a shame, it goes on and on and there is stubbornness aplenty on both sides.

indeed .

BTW, did you happen to see this?

It's worth watching. We need more dialogue like this.

i wouldn't call this dialogue actually ,Anna Baltzer is a die
hard left wing political activist , she showed more hostlity
towards Israel then barghouti .

this bit about her from wiki
Criticism
Baltzer has been criticized by organizations such as Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, a pro-Israel media watchdog group[12][13][14][15], which described her as a "Chomsky Lite" and condemned Baltzer's "baseless distortion" of "Zionism as a racist movement". Additionally, there have been several statements made by CAMERA claiming that Baltzer has made "false claims about land ownership" prior to 1948, citing UN Security Council Resolution 242 among other references supporting such statements.[16] There have also been writings regarding the organizations that support Baltzer's work, such as the International Women's Peace Service.[17]

She has also called for boycotts and divestment from Israel.[18]