Clinton: Israel must extend settlement freeze for peace talks to succeed
Speaking upon her departure to Sharm el-Sheikh summit, U.S. secretary of state says a breakdown in negotiations would hurt chances for continued Israel security, Palestinian statehood.
By Reuters Tags: Israel news Middle East peace Hillary ClintonIsrael and the Palestinians need to resolve a dispute over the expiry of an
Israeli moratorium on West Bank settlement construction that threatens to scupper their nascent direct peace talks, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday.
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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington on May 18, 2010. |
| Photo by: AP |
Speaking as she flew to Egypt for a second round of direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Clinton said the two sides would get "down to business" and she repeated the U.S. view that Israel should extend its moratorium on new settlement construction in the West Bank.
The U.S.-brokered direct talks, which resumed in Washington on Sept. 2, face a major test at the end of this month when Israel's 10-month partial moratorium on new construction in occupied territory is set to end.
Netanyahu said on Sunday Israel could not extend the moratorium but indicated he would limit the scope of future building, officials said.
Abbas has threatened to quit the peace talks with Israel if it resumes new construction in occupied territory.
"The United states believes that the moratorium should be extended," Clinton told reporters, echoing a view taken by U.S. President Barack Obama.
But she then put some of the onus on the Palestinians to take unspecified steps to help Netanyahu to extend the freeze.
"This has to be understood as an effort by both the prime minister and the president to get over the hurdle posed by the expiration of the original moratorium in order to continue negotiations," she said.
"There are obligations on both sides to ensure that these negotiations continue," she added.
She also sought to counter widespread pessimism that the first direct peace talks after a 20-month hiatus are unlikely to lead to success given the political divisions in Israel and among the Palestinians.
"For me, this is a simple choice: no negotiations, no security, no state," Clinton said as she began her journey to the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the talks will take place on Tuesday.
"There is no prospect for success in the absence of direct negotiations," she added.
Clinton is to meet separately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Sharm el-Sheikh before holding a three-way meeting. She will hold another three-way meeting in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
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Both President Obama and Secretary Clinton, in calling for Israel to extend the freeze, have said that they put some responsibility on President Abbas, also, by taking some "unspecified" steps. Always the "freeze" on the Israeli side and something "unspecified" on the Palestinian side. Pretty clear to me. Nobody expects anything of the Palestinians!
PA doesn't want peace.
Who says Israel is not here to stay? I haven't heard anyone say otherwise, in the sane world that is. But Zvuv I think you are talking about greater Israel which includes land that is not part of Israel. If you and yours want the historical lands of ancient Israel, why don't you buy the land, and provide the displaced Arabs with an equal amount of land that does belong to Israel?
Bibi Is Trying to Negotiate When Everyone Is Against Him It is impossible to understand how a Prime Minister is willing to be insulted dozens of times by non-entities like Obama, Clinton, Biden. Obama with his pro-Islamic bias, undetermined religion, friends-anti-Semites, useless not extremely bright Biden, Clinton with her foreign affairs experience of serving coffee for Bill and foreign leaders -- are firmly in the Arab Camp and insist that Israel capitulates because Obama said so. Bibi copies Sharon's behavior of kowtowing before the Americans. However, Sharon had no choice. Bibi has a choice but doesn't possess any courage. When Obama spits in his face, Bibi says it is raining. Bibi's behavior is connected with his insane fear of Iran that requires a psychiatric treatment.
Dear Mrs Clinton, PEACE SHOULD BE PROVIDED FREELY FIRST BEFORE ANY TALK FROM BOTH SIDE. 'Peace' talk itself is a wrong concept from moment it started. if anyside cannot provide peace freely, that side is unqualified for talking, talk should not even start at all before anyone come clean and fair. 'Peace' is something we must give as human being sharing this planet earth, it not something we should use as bargain for land, esp using terrorism to threaten for land. this is no different from Mafia world where gangsters go round threatening peace in exchange for money (in this situation: land). Peace should be given freely, by curbing the terrorism, then can both party go to the table and talk about land dividing lands. the pals have basically nothing to give in this talk, but Israel have to give chunks of land, it is truly not a 'ONE EXCHANGE FOR ONE' case, it is simply a 'Israel GIVE exchange for Palestinians not to TAKE (take life by terrorism)" case. so One must Give in order for the other party not to TAKE. don't make sense!!! there are 22 Arab States in the Arab League, 57 Muslim countries in e world. BUT ARAB WORLD CANNOT TOLERATE ONE SINGLE JEWISH STATE. you can made Abbas to promise anything to Mr Netanyehu, but if you deprave Israel of a Jewish State, everything else worth NOTHING! the Jewish people are one nation created single-handed by G-D himself, HE called them out to be a nation starting from Abraham. Mrs Clinton, have you not read this from your Sunday School, are you not a christian? if the Arabs not willing to come to the table accepting Israel as a Jewish state, you are denying the Jewish people their soul, their identity. GOD FORBID!
a partial moratorium. Its an oxymoron.
It's not about blaming Israel for everything, it's about letting the Palestinians who are trying to build a stable and peaceful society have a chance. Right now there are demo orders for Palestinian villages that are trying to build schools and hospitals. Expanding into the territories will only make Palestinians suffer and increase hostilities. Not only is it not worth it for Israelis, it's downright un-Jewish.
After all, extending a freeze on new building costs Israel NOTHING. The freeze can be unilaterally rescinded at any time. So why not? The only downside is Netanyahu has to answer uncomfortable questions to his coalition partners. Big deal. The upside is the potential for a lasting solution to the occupation. Take courage Israel! Don't let the haters, on either side, win this one ....
It will take a lot more to make Israel stop expanding settlements and give them to the Palestinians. Hillary and Obama cannot even begin to take the steps needed to force Israel to make peace. Netanyahu knows this. In a worst case scenario for Netanyahu, he knows that Obama will get mad at him, but it will be the anger of impotence. Israel and Netanyahu are bulletproof from some revolving door American president. This is not a secret. Hillary is role playing, thinking of how best to replace Obama as the next democratic candidate for president.
"Any deal will have to be based on security arrangements and a recognition of Israel as a Jewish state" - Netanyahu/// Being more explicit, Netanyahu said that first there should be talk about security issues and only then on borders. Let us see how it will work: First Netanyahu will demand the Jordan Valley (15-20% of West Bank), then the area overlooking BG Airport, etc., as security measures, and then he will talk about borders of what is left. Then Netanyahu will demand that the palestinians should recognize israel as a Jewish state, then claim that Palestinian refugee cannot return to a "Jewish" state and will be willing to discuss the refugee problem on this basis. I am not saying that the refugees should go back to Israel, but discussing the issues as a whole, trading concessions in Jerusalem for concessions on the refugees, is the way to conduct negotiations. Netanyahu is trying to cheat people who are expert cheaters like himself, and fool the rest of the world who know he is an expert liar. Not going to work.
After the Gaza-Jericho First agreement (Oslo I), Israel was to give Gaza and Jericho over to Palestinian control. Arafat then started an argument: What is meant by "Jericho"? Israel thought it was the city, but Arafat claimed it meant the "District of Jericho" as was used by Jordan, a much larger area. It took months to agree on some compromise, and all this with the understanding that Oslo is a first leg towards a much larger Israeli evacuation in a peace agreement. I hope Abbas does not repeat Arafat's mistakes. Yes, he is legally correct when demanding a complete halt to settlement construction, and even in East Jerusalem, which international law forbids. But better accept some "effective freeze" which would allow only small scale construction, and move on with the larger peace deal. In return for the "freeze" concession, the Palestinians can get some good Israeli concession, to be kept even if the present talks fail, such as a larger Area A. Unfortunately, the opening declarations are not too comforting.
If there is progress extend the freeze another 3 months, no progress build away...
To improve security, all nations make treaties with their enemies AND allies................the U.S. economy has weakened.......and U.S. citizens want to cut government spending...........it is not in Israel's best interest to be intransagent on somebody else's dime.............
It is about time the truth comes out. Next: push Israel to denuclearize. They can save money to feed "desperately hungry Israeli children... look on the right side of this page.
tell us something new....
The Left/Right Divide will never be the same, the non-isreali jews vs isreali zionists, ouch
How dare she? That is nonsense. Once again, blame Israel. How about stop the rocket fire into Israel or else negotiations are over?? Try that one!
does your attitude towards negotiations change if armaments from America are prohibited from being used except defensively..........and cannot be deployed to support Israeli settlements in (American-defined) Arab territory.
Why freeze if it won't be given to the arabs?
"This has to be understood as an effort by both the prime minister and the president to get over the hurdle posed by the expiration of the original moratorium in order to continue negotiations," "... and the president..."! That all but a call for a change of leadership... what is the role of president, to form government! Simply unreal. The American are serious and are pinning any failure firmly on Israel! Incredible!
Victor, Clinton was talking about the American President when she said: "an effort by both the prime minister and the president..." Before you get unhinged you should know what you are getting unhinged about.
If Abbas were a true peace partner, he wouldn't have waited until the end of the freeze in order to begin negotiations on the grounds of an Israeli humiliation. Every day of the 10 month freeze that Abbas didn't sit down at a table with Bibi was bad faith. Israel gave Abbas an olive branch. 10 months later, that olive branch has withered.
Oh yes, HOW DARE Israel build on its own land. Yeah, just terrible. I remind you that Israel won east Jerusalem. If Israel did not win east Jerusalem it would be Jordan. Would Jordan be willing to give it back? Of course not!!
Israel is here to stay. Palestine is Fantasy land. Move to Jordan and the BS will be instantly over. If Hillary has nothing to do . I will find her something for sure. Stop this Nonsense talks that leads to nothing.
Bravo Hillary for speaking the truth for a change. Prolonging the freeze will not kill Israel. It's the least they can do in pursuit of peace. For Israel to again spit in America's face by refusing to extend the freeze is unacceptable. The US has no money yet we give billions to fiscally healthy Israel at the risk of our own security. IT'S ABOUT TIME ISRAEL DID SOMETHING FOR THE US!
Does it even matter, really? Will anything change? Will it? I wish the Palestinians could have half the land and Jews the other half & that they'd get along. Better, I wish the land was never given to Jews in the first place & it was still occupied by Christians, Muslims & Jews. But now that this mess up exists, why not get Israel&USA to give a heap of money to the Palestinians to move to Jordan or wherever. So Israel gets all the land, Palestinians are gone and live somewhere else in peace. No more troubles & it only costs something the Bankers have too much of anyhow...money.