Netanyahu: Demand for settlement freeze 'costing time'
Netanyahu: Obama pledged commitment to Israel in front of Muslim world; FM: Israel winning on settlements.
By The Associated Press Tags: Israel settlements Barack Obama Israel news Avigdor LiebermanA day after meeting U.S. President Barack Obama at a tripartite summit in New York, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that the U.S. demand for a complete settlement freeze in the West Bank was "costing us a great deal of time."
Netanyahu, who has rebuffed the Obama administration's repeated calls for a complete freeze to activity in West Bank settlements, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer:
"I think that raising this condition, something that hasn't happened in 15 years of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue - nobody put this precondition - this is just costing us a great deal of time."
"The issue of settlements has to be discussed at the end or in the context within these negotiations, not before," he added.
"It has to be resolved. And we're prepared to look into this issue, as into other issues. But we have to talk in order to talk about it," said Netanyahu. That's obvious. And yet we haven't. For six months, we have been waiting to talk about talks. I say let's put that aside. Let's just get on with it and start the peace process again.
Netanyahu also told CNN that the bond between Israel and the United States was as strong as ever.
"Let me tell you something about President Obama, because I think this should be fully appreciated. He stood before the entire Muslim world. I don't know if a billion people heard him, but hundreds of millions of people in Muslim countries heard him. And he said: 'The bond between America and Israel is unshakeable. We are absolutely committed to Israel's security'."
"Israel has a terrific friend in America and the American people," Netanyahu added. "And I want the American people to know that you - they have a terrific friend in Israel. In the Middle East, you don't have that many friends, but we're definitely right at the top of the list."
When asked by Blitzer "who is a better friend of Israel", Bush or Obama, Netanyahu responded:
"I think that President Obama's commitment to Israel has been expressed very loud, very clearly by him. And I think this reflects the underlying friendship between our two countries. It's very strong."
Lieberman: 3-way meet shows Israel is winning on settlements
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday that Netanyahu's summit with the Palestinian and American leaders was a victory because it took place even as Israel rebuffed demands to freeze settlement in the West Bank.
Netanyahu met in New York on Tuesday with President Barack Obama and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. It was Netanyahu's first meeting with Abbas since the prime minister came to power in March, but peace negotiations have not officially resumed and there was no obvious progress.
According to Lieberman, the meeting showed Israel's firm stand against a settlement freeze was effective.
"This government has shown that you don't always need to get flustered, to surrender and give in," Lieberman told Israel Radio. "What's important for me is that this government kept its promises to the voter ... and the fact is that this meeting happened."
Obama and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have previously demanded a full halt to construction in the settlements. The Palestinians, emboldened at least in part by the U.S. stand, said they would not resume negotiations without a freeze.
Past rounds of negotiations have been conducted while construction went on in Israeli settlements, where the population has more than doubled to 300,000 since Israel and the Palestinians signed a landmark agreement in 1993.
Obama did not explicitly call for a settlement freeze at Tuesday's meeting, and George Mitchell, the U.S. special Mideast envoy, said afterward that the administration does not see a resolution of the settlement showdown as a precondition for resuming negotiations.
The U.S. position was a boost for Israel and rankled Palestinians, who are still demanding a settlement freeze as a condition for talks.
Seeking to simultaneously appease the U.S. and his hardline coalition government, Netanyahu has agreed to slow settlement construction for a limited time. He has said construction will continue on some 3,000 housing units.
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Israel. Yes, Liberman is a loud month but i like it. Shows that there is some toughness in Israel! I remember when the Kadima party was in power people still talked hell about Israel. So, Leiberman do your thing!
we will not lack for enemies. They have never been an ally. Other Muslim nations have.
I know the west bank is not worth much (no oil) but it should bring a good price in war reparations...Israel will eventually get out but it may as well do it at a profit...a big profit that the super rich oil soaked neighbors and former owners, will be glad to pay to "get rid of the present occupiers" And in US dollars...& no credits. Cash only.
What is he advocating for?Watch what was happening in Kosovo since 1999 and you will see..if ..
I don't see an end game for your approach. What, exactly, are you advocating. Are you in favor of continuing "their horrific plight that they brought upon themselves." until they die of starvation and disease? In what way do you mean "continue?" Do you mean that we should actively participate in their privation or simply look the other way while they perish? Do you mean that we should continue to forcibly contain the Palestinians in a gradually diminishing territory while incrementally reducing their available resources until finally they are all dead? Is that really a passive act? Peace. Stephen
The fact is that those settlements are being built on stolen land. Period.
As Obama eases up on his call for a complete settlement freeze, israel gloats that it has won an important round--and keep on building on territory needed for a Palestinian state. But, of course, israel does not want a Palestinian state; it wants the palestinians to simply leave the area--go to Jordon is the frequent cry.
should simply stop funding the welfare state of Israel if they refuse to do as they're told. Everyone knows that without America, Israel doesn't exist. PERIOD! You need us, we don't need you. Our "special" friendship does nothing but harm our country, and the American people, with the exception of those insane evangelicals that think they're going to convert you when "Jesus comes back", are waking up to this fact.
It never was about the settlements. It's about Arabs hating Jews. Do you really for one second think if Israel dismantled every single settlement that there would be peace? What about 1948-67, no settlements ,no peace either. If you think so ,you are out of your mind. Haven't you learned from gaza. Maybe the Palestinians should have taken there state in 1948 and after when they had a chance. It's comical to watch a people who have spent 60 years trying to destroy Israel tell the world that they will not negotiate ,till Israel halts settlement construction. So let them not negotiate and continue their horrific plight that they brought upon themselves.
TREATY AT SAN REMO IN 1920 and the following 1922 mandate . there are no geneva conventions so stop posting total garbage ALL JEWISH SETTLEMENTS ARE 100,000% LEGAL !
I have a completely different read on it. netanyahu speaks the slogans they want to hear, empty slogans which he is a master of. If he feels a freeze MAY, MIGHT or MAYBE an outcome down the road during the negotiations, you can be sure that he would use that time to do precisely what lieberman was saying is the real Israel position. Two peas in the pod. They have no intention of moving on the settlements, nor a ripping apat Israeli society by confronting the colonists who now are the strongest force in Israel. What will do it is if the US and EU cut off all funding for the expansionist project.
Both MM Netanyahu and Abbas can fly home with the wonderful impression they both won their compatriots respect in resisting President Obama demands. Considering past experience I wonder if trying to mediate the Palestinian Israeli conflict is a good idea ? after all both parties are skilled professionals and know what they are doing. Why complicate this game with a 3rd party that has nothing really obvious to offer ?
All this refusal on settlements is making Oran in a stronger position against US
Notice the words of these spinmeisters. netanyahu says: "the issue of settlements has to be discussed at the end or in context within these negotiations, not before." leberman boasts that the meeting "showed Israel is not giving in. This government kept its promise to the voters" What is it that needs to be discussed? lieberman seems to imply that the current policy of no settlement freeze is rock solid and the right wing can rest easy. So, to negotiate without this precondition of a freeze simply means that if negotaitions began again, Israel would do exactly the same as it has consistently done in the past--use the time to build and expand, create facts on the ground from which they will not retreat and more of the territory designated for a viable palestinian state is eaten up by the occupation.
Come on Bibi - you are depending on the settlements for your procrastination tactics. No settlements, and God help us, you just might have to agree to peace on other terms than your just your own!
Is international community interfering with your land grabbing on occupied land (Un Resolutions clearly state the settlements are illegal under international law, I though I would highlight it in case some people might say they legal :)::) Sorry Netanyahu, International community is sorry !!!!
Abbas? He sure is a great leader. HE split the pal factions refused a state that gave away 3% of the west bank and how he wont even negotiate for a state... Looks like the biggest champion of the settlements is Abbas!
And it won't cost any more time.
'Talk is cheap, land is expensive, especially considering Israel paid for it in blood' You are right there Petra, only it was mostly Palestinian blood
Friends, yes, at arm's length. Though I wouldn't risk my life on your country's behalf.
While this story was being written, the Palestinian leader, Abu Mazen, added another condition to re-starting negotiations: Namely, a demand that ISrael commit to withdrawal back to the 1949 Rhodes Armistice Lines IN ADVANCE OF FURTHER TALKS. (as reported in Ha'aretz Flash Headlines)
great! Congratulations! I'm sure peace will come smoothly and obstacle-free if only the world in general and the US in particular will just let Israel build and build. After all that way someday the whole Westbank will be Jewish and thus safe right?
Palestinian activity in Western universities and the media is aimed at breaking American and Western commitment to Israel. They manage to get a boycott here and there but that's the extent of it.It's not apparent that any Obama commitment to the Muslims will get them to accept a Jewish Israel.
If Israel is permitted to flaunt international law, namely the UN Charter and the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting territorial expansion by conquest (military force), then the whole world will be at risk of the law of the jungle as before World War II. The world has no choice but to impose sanctions on Israel unless Israel retreats behind the 1967 armistice line. Obama the lawyer should above all know this. His committment to "America First", as well as "Global Interest", both compel him to force Israel into obedience to International Law.
Netanyahu: "I think that raising this condition, something that hasn't happened in 15 years of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue - nobody put this precondition - this is just costing us a great deal of time," Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: "Israel also freezes all settlement activity, consistent with the Mitchell report." Bibi was, of course, a member of the Likud-led Israeli govt that agreed to that Road Map in 2003. Is it chutzpah, or is it brain-damage? Aren't you guys even the slightest bit shamed that your champion is such an unmitigated liar?
Talk is cheap, land is expensive, especially considering Israel paid for it in blood. GIve them nothing except talk.
The memory of the Palestinian is as long as the Israelis. They know they were driven off their land, and will not forgive or forget, so the only ultimate peace will be arrived at thru dismantling most of the settlements and giving Eastern Jerusalem to the new Palestinian state. It was Begin and Sharon who set the precedents of Israeli retreat, towards reality and peace, and Bibi, when he stops blustering, will in fact, do the same thing. An unlikely hero, but one nevertheless if he changes his course for peace. Blessed are the peacemakers, as Begin said, quoting the Bible. Happy New Year Bibi.
may be FM should also be a bit less loud.
Lieberman declares what the rejectionists want to hear, and keep them shtum... ... while Bibi can act like a statesman and negotiate settlement reductions... ... the heyday of the settlements is passing...
With such statements he pisses off the Americans, Europeans, Palestinians and Arabs. Lieberman is really the best secret weapon Palestinians have had for decades. The man is worth 50.000 missiles.