Report: Palestinians reject bid for bi-weekly Netanyahu-Abbas meetings

Some of your comments on here are right on the money,while others are so down right stupid,that i marvel at how your squash you call brains work!For all of you who fall into the squash for brains,let me enlighten you once again! The "So called Palestinians" do not,yes i said DO NOT want peace with Israel,unless Israel gives up more of their GOD GIVEN Land. Well ,forget it,The Jews own the Land,including Gaza,Golan Heights and much more,including all of JERUSALEM! Take it up with God,if you don't agree!

Sinai, then Gaza. Israeli governments build, then bulldoze so they can preserve the fiction of "painful concession." Getting a border is more important, and so is Palestinian sovereignty. Then Palestine can demand the back rent due. And then Israeli politicians will stop building and bulldoze the homes they themselves don't live in and then wail and cover themselves with ashes. That's tradition.

While you and I are griping about on-one-one encounters, France's FM's remarks, and wondering if anything will come of this, Bibi's people on the ground are taking more of Jerusalem , building buildings, and getting ready for the big push to start rolling again when the freeze expires. Bibi' grand strategy: to keep the world distracted, keep the settlers moving, and above all to make it look like peace. is around the corner. I'll believe it when Eli Yishai invites Ahmadinejad over for tea, and he accepts.

Bibi wants to meet with Abbas privately once every two weeks. Nice, but what will they talk about? This is all a show. Abbas is right. The time to meet is when it is clear that the parties share a common vision. Then, private meetings can be very useful in working out details. At this point, there is no reason to believe the parties share anything resembling a common vision. Is Bibi simply trying to position himself as the "good guy" for when the talks collapse?

is still a pre-condition. Looks like Bibi's first attempt to set the stage for the talks is shot down before the talks even begin.

no need for talks but actions. apologize and get the hell out. make jerusalem a state like the vatican and only allow religion and its denominations within. evacuate isarel and return the land to the rightful owners. now, that is simple. as long as israel wants to talk nothing will be fixed.

Abbas should clarify that, other than themselves, these meetings should also be attended by one representative 'observer' each from Israel, the PA, the US, the EU, the Arab League, and the UN(one from Hamas would be the ideal, but....?). And bottom line, THIS should be something that's insisted on for the whole process. NOT to be directly involved in the talks, but to act as independent witnesses and serve as liaisons - POC's for information, assistance, etc - to and for the entities they represent.

Soon the political horizon will be a Palestinian Singapore like city state metro region from Jericho to Nablus. The Palestinians give new meaning to psychiatric concepts like self destructive behavior and repetition compulsion.

The Pals are trying to find a reason to geopardize talks. Poor Pals no leader no state !

Abbas should clarify that, other than themselves, these meetings should also be attended by one representative 'observer' each from Israel, the PA, the US, the EU, the Arab League, and the UN(one from Hamas would be the ideal, but....?). And bottom line, THIS should be something that's insisted on for the whole process. NOT to be directly involved in the talks, but to act as independent witnesses and serve as liaisons - POC's for information, assistance, etc - to and for the entities they represent.

If they play hard to get, they should be shown in no uncertain terms they are not quite the prizes they think they are. They won't talk--to hell with them.

what ever happened to no preconditions? it seems the Palestinians dont understand or don't care about the peace talks,,,, acting like they are talking from a very strong position , but i really think its the support they are getting from the outside that makes them reject all Israeli offers if not forced to,just like another Arab leader ( maybe like the Iranian leader (( they are all playing the same game

abass should make peace but make bibi suffer to get it

... who was given a peace proposal which was very close to his demands, but which he had no intention of signing. So, like his predecessor, Abbas is bluffing, and does not want to get to the point where his bluff will be called.

Don't let the facts get in the way of your hatred Haaretz readers. The Prime Minister proposes face-to-face talks. The Palestinians reject. But the usual Hate-Israel chorus says its the settlements and every other canard it can think of...

weather? hope you freeze to death

No israel, No Palestine. One State Solution is the best for all. One Man, One Vote, Equality for all inhabitants. Equal Pay for Equal Work, Equal Water Rights. No Apartheid, No Segregation...A Very True Secular Democrac Let us call it: “State of Holy Land”.

Arafat was eventually imprisoned in his compound after the failure of the Camp David Summit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_Arafat#Attempts_to_marginalize

Meeting face-to-face sounds like a very sensible suggestion to me, to be discussed in Washington at their first meeting of course.

After the Gaza-Jericho First agreement (Oslo), 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 will get some good Israeli concession, such as a larger Area A. The opening declarations are not too comforting, unfortunately.

Are the Palestinians even interested in peace?

This issue is particularly revealing of elements in Netanyahu's personality. First, a basic principle. If you are discussing with another side sharing the land (or a pizza), it cannot be done while one party keeps devouring the land (or the pizza). Some form of a freeze is obviously a necessary condition for peace talks. If this thought did not occur to netanyahu on his own, he could have gotten a clue from the fact that the Roadmap included a freeze in the FIRST phase. This is basic. What decision did the Netanyahu government take? 1. The freeze applies to outside the current line of buildings, not to building WITHIN the currently built area. 2. The freeze will last for only 10 months. 3. The freeze will not be renewed. What do these elements indicate? The first element shows that Netanyahu has some sense of realism, and understands that a territorial exchange is acceptable to the Palestinians, so he takes advantage of it. The two other points are clearly unreal. Was it conceivable that the talks will be concluded in only 10 months? Would the Palestinians even conceive of talking peace with no freezing? I think Netanyahu has enough realism to realize that, but since he was dealing with his right wing partners Lieberman and most of Likud members, he decided to deceive them for now, present a nicer picture, and when the time comes he would try to wriggle out of it. All this shows Netanyahu as a creature of pressure; when pressured he acts, many times deceptively. Ultimately, he is not a courageous leader. He did not fight out the good fight then. Now he will pay some extra political cost for cheating his followers.

The main policy-maker of continual rejection. If he's in charge nothing positive will come out.One has to go back & see his negative attitude on everything concerning Israeli/Palis negotiations.Erekat will cause a stalemate & then blame Israel.& since the world of today leans heavily on the Palis' side, be prepared for some more fireworks !

NETANYAHU ONLY USES SOFT LANGUAGE FOR PEACE , BUT WHEN IT COMES TO REALITY HE IS NOT A MAN OF PEACE.

Israeli leaders portray settlement expansion as some immutable force that is beyond the ability of any government to stop. Settlements are the equivalent of an impending natural disaster like a plaque of locusts, a tsunami, or an earthquake. It is man vs. nature and man is doomed. Can any government sworn to execute it's duty to protect it's citizens be expected to willingly take actions that will lead to it's demise? What is worse -- jihad from Hamas or jihad from settlers? Not even PM Solomon, if he were here, could be expected to make such a decision.