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Last update - 23:09 21/10/2009
American UN envoy to Israel: Relaunch Mideast talks now
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent and Reuters
Tags: Middle East peace 

The Obama administration's ambassador to the United Nations told Israelis on Wednesday that it is not enough just to pay lip service to peace and urged the government to immediately relaunch negotiations, without preconditions, aimed at creating an independent Palestinian state.

Ambassador Susan Rice, in an address at a high-powered conference hosted by Israeli President Shimon Peres, assured Israelis - many of whom are wary of U.S. President Barack Obama's Mideast agenda - that her government is committed to their security.

"As President Peres always reminds us, being serious about peace means taking risks for peace," Rice said. "Being serious about peace means understanding that tomorrow need not look like yesterday."
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Peres shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and slain Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin for Mideast peace efforts

Israeli officials: Deal imminent with U.S. on Mideast talks

Meanwhile Wednesday, Israeli officials said that Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, is close to a deal with Israel on terms for resuming peace talks with the Palestinians.

"There appears to be a meeting of the minds and hopefully the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue will be able to re-start in the near future," an Israeli official said, summing up talks held by negotiators for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington.

Under the prospective deal, on which Palestinians have not yet commented, the negotiations could be held on the basis of two decades-old United Nations Security Council resolutions, 242 and 338, another official said.

Such a formula could be acceptable to Israel since it interprets those resolutions as falling short of a demand to withdraw from all of the West Bank, territory it captured during the 1967 Six Day War.

Palestinians, who seek a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, hold that the resolutions, which call for "withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict", obliges Israel to return to pre-1967 lines.

Palestinian negotiators were in Washington on Tuesday for talks with U.S. officials on how to relaunch negotiations.

Washington apparently hopes to persuade Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to return to peace talks based on the resolutions, enabling each side to cleave to its own interpretation and avoid conceding diplomatic ground on borders before negotiations resume.

However, Abbas has given no public sign he has dropped a main Palestinian condition for a resumption of negotiations - an Israeli settlement freeze in the West Bank in accordance with a 2003 U.S.-backed peace "road map".

A progress report U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to deliver within days to Obama on Mitchell's mediation efforts could clarify the situation.

Many Palestinians felt humiliated when Obama last month called for Israeli restraint on settlements rather than repeat his call for a freeze.

Netanyahu had refused to halt construction in settlements, arguing he needed to accommodate the needs of growing settler families.

Israeli officials have said Netanyahu offered Mitchell a freeze on settlement expansion outside of areas around Jerusalem that Israel has annexed that would last nine months. Washington has not commented publicly beyond repeating a desire for an end to settlement activity, as called for under a 2004 interim deal.

Palestinians fear that Israel's West Bank settlements, deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice, would block the formation of a viable and contiguous state.

In a speech on Tuesday, Netanyahu again urged Abbas to return to negotiations that Palestinians suspended after Israel launched a military offensive in December in the Gaza Strip, territory ruled by his Hamas Islamist rivals.

Under U.S. pressure, Netanyahu has agreed to negotiate the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

But he said such a state must be demilitarized and Palestinians have to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, a demand they fear could undermine claims to resettle or compensate Palestinian refugees of a 1948 war over Israel's founding.


Palestinian official: We're ready for talks with U.S., but not with Israel

Meanwhile, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat arrived in Washington Tuesday, where he was expected to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other American officials to discuss the first phase of the road map and the renewal of final-status talks.

But in an interview with Palestinian Authority newspaper Al-Ayyam, Erekat - who was is also due to meet with U.S. National Security Adviser James Jones and George Mitchell, the American envoy to the Mideast - said the most important issue is freezing Israeli settlement construction.

"There are no interim solutions," he said. "It's not a precondition for negotiations, but an explicit Israeli commitment that they have to meet."

Erekat told the paper there is an American plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, but said it is irrelevant as long as Israel continues building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, adding that all peace talks are currently being held with the Americans, not the Israelis.

He said the second most important issue to be discussed during his visit is the Palestinian request that U.S. President Barack Obama state that the peace process must lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, and that negotiations must include all the final-status issues.

Quartet Mideast envoy Tony Blair said during a visit to Hebron Tuesday that he expects Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on a final-status agreement to resume within a few weeks.


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      1.   Everything but everything "HUMILIATES" Palestinians 19:27  |  Alan SA 21/10/09
      2.   If you can not beat them, JOIN THEM. 19:29  |  Peter 21/10/09
      3.   The solution is known... 19:37  |  John 21/10/09
      4.   242&338 19:50  |  Ian 21/10/09
      5.   # 1, # 2, # 3 19:59  |  Israeli citizen 21/10/09
      6.   When ... 20:04  |  bronxite10 21/10/09
      7.   Palestinian Population Inflation by Peter Piper(#2) 20:06  |  Steve of Mevaserret 21/10/09
      8.   To Peter 20:08  |  Ice 21/10/09
      9.   Israeli official: Deal Imminent with U.S. 20:13  |  Sarah Lascar 21/10/09
      10.   Not a sovereign country 20:17  |  Jack Olson 21/10/09
      11.   Israel play with words. 20:19  |  Tony 21/10/09
      12.   interpretations 20:19  |  Axel 21/10/09
      13.   What a joke 20:25  |  Andrew 21/10/09
      14.   Israel Cannot Be Allowed To Get Away With This 20:30  |  Yaakov Sullivan 21/10/09
      15.   #10 JACK,HAVE YOU HEAD OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN? 20:38  |  Ian 21/10/09
      16.   UN Security Council Resolution 242, the basis for peace 20:38  |  Eitan 21/10/09
      17.   After 9 months 20:51  |  Mark Lincoln 21/10/09
      18.   To #14 and rest 20:52  |  Joe 21/10/09
      19.   UNSC resolutions 20:52  |  David 21/10/09
      20.   #11,TONY. REASON THAT 242&338 ARE MESS 20:57  |  Ian 21/10/09
      21.   Enough talk. Time to Evacuate! 21:00  |  Tony Silver 21/10/09
      22.   14 Yaakov Sullivan - Calm Down 21:01  |  Mark of Lewiston 21/10/09
      23.   Terrific, Ian three cheers 21:04  |  r cummings 21/10/09
      24.   #15 A jewish State 21:15  |  nobody 21/10/09
      25.   Yaakov Sullivan 21:15  |  Wally 21/10/09
      26.   Eitan, your`re editing history here 21:17  |  r cummings 21/10/09
      27.   Any Israel Authorities interest ,deal , agreement , commitment 21:23  |  Joseph .E 21/10/09
      28.   Don`t write Obama off yet 21:33  |  r cummings 21/10/09
      29.   # 15 ian 21:38  |  Axel 21/10/09
      30.   Bibi`s stubborn demand for "natural growth" davka on Pal land 21:44  |  Esther 21/10/09
      31.   # 19 david 21:47  |  Axel 21/10/09
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      33.   Arabs turn down a state....AGAIN 21:58  |  David 21/10/09
      34.   #11, whats a Palestinian or Palestinian territory? PLay of words 22:04  |  David 21/10/09
      35.   #14 corocdile tears on 42nd st by yaakov and his chagrin 22:13  |  vhardman 21/10/09
      36.   Settlement freeze No. 1 condition 22:15  |  David 21/10/09
      37.   #14, Yaakov, what is left???? do Arabs want a Pal state?? 22:18  |  David 21/10/09
      38.   Sullivan No. 14 22:20  |  David 21/10/09
      39.   to Steve on #7--Inflation 22:26  |  Shmuelshachor 21/10/09
      40.   IDF Liberation Angel . 22:29  |  Joseph .E 21/10/09
      41.   Israel doesn`t want peace 22:45  |  Ric 21/10/09
      42.   Don Boston and Zeev re: maximalist positions 22:47  |  Darth Zaider (Ed) 21/10/09
      43.   And the barrrier continues to be built. 23:32  |  David E 21/10/09
      44.   Reality Denial Disorder - Eitan 23:35  |  Mark Lincoln 21/10/09
      45.   Land for Peace is a two way street 23:41  |  Milton 21/10/09
      46.   A Circus 23:48  |  Oren 21/10/09
      47.   face it! diplomacy has obviously failed 06:33  |  eric 22/10/09
      48.   American UN envoy should address herself to the Arabs and say: 07:01  |  Eitan 22/10/09
      49.   FIRST RELEASE GILAD SHALIT!!!! 07:31  |  lily 22/10/09
      50.   FIRST: ICRC must be allowed to visit Gilad Shalit 07:34  |  lily 22/10/09
      51.   Order for Israel to talk to the Palestinians 07:48  |  fredyr 22/10/09
      52.   International Court of Justice has an opinion 07:51  |  Rod 22/10/09
      53.   #19 Are you joking, David? 09:00  |  Johnboy 22/10/09
      54.   What are the chances of peace? 09:01  |  B. Gold 22/10/09
      55.   Negotiations 09:46  |  Iain 22/10/09
      56.   # 16 eitan the selctive reader 10:29  |  Axel 22/10/09
      57.   ROD ICJ Egyptian judge announced Israel guilty BEFORE the hearing 10:50  |  PETER SM 22/10/09
      58.   #14 Yaakov Sullivan 11:02  |  Der Zweifler 22/10/09
      59.   The UN should take over control of West Bank from Israel. 11:34  |  Michael 22/10/09
      60.   Susan Rice 11:59  |  Brod 22/10/09
      61.   MICHAEL UNIFIL has demonstrated all the trust Israelis need to- 12:23  |  PETER SM 22/10/09
      62.   i.e. more talk - no action is that not lip service from America? 12:54  |  Tcherkessi 22/10/09
      63.   B. Gold excellent, thank you. 13:06  |  petra 22/10/09
      64.   PETER SM 36. Not just UN, NATO and EU as well. 13:16  |  Michael 22/10/09
      65.   Before all else, the International Committee of the Red Cross 13:25  |  Nahum 22/10/09
      66.   Sullivan asks that Jews, because they are Jewish, not reside in 13:45  |  Eitan 22/10/09
      67.   # 19 david 13:53  |  Axel 22/10/09
      68.   # 40 eitan the repeater of lies 14:37  |  Axel 22/10/09
      69.   nonesense, Axel #42!!! Read Eitan`s learned post, #16, where 14:45  |  Sagi 22/10/09
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      71.   A harsher tone 17:35  |  Agatha 22/10/09
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      73.   Israel and USA Barrier to Peace 18:13  |  Vladek 22/10/09
      74.   # 24 Eitan 18:44  |  Stephen 22/10/09
      75.   1,000 Day Full Court Press 18:48  |  Stephen 22/10/09
      76.   # 46 Stephen. The Palestinian Arabs accepted the fact that Israel 20:48  |  Eitan 22/10/09
      77.   ICOJ 20:55  |  Jim 22/10/09
      78.   B. Hussein Obama 21:25  |  Nathan Mizrahi 22/10/09
      79.   Peace Talks 22:46  |  Marc 22/10/09
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