Quartet urges Israel to freeze all settlement construction
Call comes after Obama appears to back off demand for settlement freeze as precondition for talks.
By Reuters Tags: Israel settlements Quartet Israel newsThe Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators renewed its call for Israel to freeze settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem on Thursday, two days after U.S. President Barack Obama appeared to back off this as a precondition for new peace talks.
The Quartet - the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia - said they shared Obama's sense of urgency in seeking a durable Middle East peace.
"The Quartet urges the government of Israel to freeze all settlement activity, including natural growth; and to refrain from provocative actions in East Jerusalem," the group said in a statement.
Israel has said that some settlements should be allowed to expand, a process it argues merely allows for the natural growth of the population, but which the Palestinians and the United States have both rejected.
Obama, who this week personally sought to persuade Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to relaunch talks, called on Tuesday for "restraint" in settlement.
That was seen as an apparent softening that reflected a U.S. approach to push hard for negotiations without preconditions.
Each side is still demanding that the other make concessions first, dimming immediate hopes for progress.
The Quartet also called on the Palestinian Authority to improve law and order, fight violent extremism, and end incitement.
The group urged both sides to comply with their obligations under the 2003 Roadmap peace agreement "irrespective of reciprocity - to create the conditions for the resumption of negotiations in the near term."
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Ah, what an easy life we lead with the Messiah around to mop up all our filth and to thank us for the really disgusting job you've designated for Him. Juuuust lean back and enjoy the spectacle!
during obama's speach to the general assembly, he called on other nations to take a more active role and not always rely on the united states... so who knows, maybe he's defering to the e.u. and what we have here is a prelude to a different approach...without aipac's hand to hinder. never know.
They will "legally" own everything if the law you are relying on to support your enterprise continues to permit only Jews to purchase it.
No freebies before negotiations and no changing facts on the ground and illegal Arab land grabs thank you very much!
Is there a law that specifically forbid Jews to live in Judea and Samaria on land they legally own?
"Netanyahu spoke of the Holocaust but Israel committed the largest massacre of the century". "Netanyahu's demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state unacceptable" "Palestine has never been Jewish land". Who is Israel going to talk peace to? Jane
Are they also urging a freeze on settlement construction in Alsace Lorraine, Wales, the Kurile Islands, Catalonia, Texas.....
Israel's shine has definitely dulled. We see Cast Lead as at least 50 Palestinian civilians killed for each Qassam murder. Sharon spoke of a generous Israel if peace could happen, Netanyahu offers nothing, claims spoils of war, and adds preconditions galore to peacemaking. As an American, I want Israel to thrive within 1947 proposed borders, but take your "old west" frontier mentality and stick it. Look in the mirror, look at the Palestinians, and ask if you are good human beings. Yes, terrorism is sick, but how long and how much can you hurt the non-terrorists for what the terrorists did? Isn't this just a little bit like the evil stereotyping and defamation ADL and the like (justly) criticize? Make peace not colonies!
The Quartet is not going to do anything but what they have always done in the past. Roll over like cowardly dogs and pee on themselves. They should just shut up. They are fools to call attention to their total lack will to actually do anything. "Go away, or we will taunt you again!" - The French, in Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail
...the Obama administration has made clear many times, most recently in the UNGA speech, that the United States views Israeli colonies outside of Israel proper as illegitimate.
1.The Messiah resolves everything speedily and without preconditions. 2.Jesus Christ, The Messiah, is the Only Perfect Miraculous Solution to all humanly intractable problems. 3.Starting with the Miracle of water turned into wine, JC weds two nations, two peoples and two religions. 4.Other Miracles by JC: reunites prodigal children of the oldest family of Abram or Abraham. Orders religious fighters to put their weapons, be they ballistic or nuclear, back into the scabbard, effectively ending all wars and conflicts, providing the only exit strategy from deep holes including terrorism, Iraq and Afghanistan. Calms the violent weather, ending global warming and climate change. Sets the correct price of oil and wheat, ending the present economic crisis.