Top Netanyahu aide: Here’s proof Abbas deliberately destroyed peace talks

In letter to White House, EU and world ambassadors, PM’s national security chief presents ‘damning evidence’ of sabotage by Ramallah

BY YIFA YAAKOV May 7, 2014, 12:29 pm

NOTE: This is really interesting:

A letter reportedly sent by Israel’s national security chief to the White House, the EU and numerous ambassadors blames the Palestinians for the collapse of peace talks, and claims to include hard proof that PA officials were devising measures to thwart the process even before Israel refused to release a fourth round of Palestinian prisoners at the end of March.

n the April 22 letter, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser, Yossi Cohen, revealed that chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat wrote a policy paper in March in preparation for a Palestinian rejection of American mediation efforts and Israeli overtures — nearly a month before Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas made a unilateral move to sign 15 international conventions, ostensibly in response to Israel’s refusal to honor its commitment to release the final round of prisoners,Haaretz reported Wednesday.

In fact, Cohen said, according to a copy of the latter published alongside the report (PDF here), Erekat had planned the maneuver weeks before Israel announced its refusal to release the prisoners — timing that, according to Cohen, demonstrates that the Palestinian leadership never intended to follow the peace talks through.

Cohen attached Erekat’s policy paper to his letter, copies of which were reportedly sent to his US counterpart Susan Rice, US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, all Israel-based EU ambassadors, and ambassadors from China, Russia and other countries. He appealed to the recipients to peruse the Erekat document and “draw conclusions” as to the Palestinians’ “bad faith” and responsibility for the failure of the latest round of peace talks.

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Read more: Top Netanyahu aide: Here's proof Abbas deliberately destroyed peace talks | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-official-palestinians-purposely-stymied-talks/#ixzz315EJANZK
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Hamas's Abu Marzouk says recognizing Israel a 'red line'

NOTE: Okay, so noted. You don't recognize Israel, let alone the Jewish State. Thanks for sharing. Read on...

“This is a red line that cannot be crossed,” said the 63-year-old Hamas leader who played a pivotal role in achieving the reconciliation deal with Fatah on April 23.

Abu Marzouk’s remarks come as Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas meet in Qatar. The Hamas leader added that the Quartet’s requirement that Hamas recognize Israel “do not concern us one bit.”

“We would have spared ourselves seven years of misery under the siege and two wars in 2008 and 2012 had we wanted to recognize Israel,” he said.

Abbas said April 26 that a unity government would recognize Israel, but this was not agreed upon with Hamas, according to Abu Marzouk, who said that Abbas “alone is responsible for his words.” He also reiterated Hamas’ refusal to disarm the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, despite requests by Fatah to do so as part of the reconciliation.

“Hamas’ position in this regard is clear, and it will not allow any tampering with the brigades’ armament under any circumstances,” said the Hamas deputy leader. Please CLICK HERE to keep reading

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/05/interview-abu-marzouk-hamas-israel-fatah-reconciliation.html##ixzz30skvjIJ6

Pres. Clinton: Arafat Turned Down Major Last-Minute Israeli Concessions in 2000

by TheTower.org Staff | 05.05.14 8:08 am

In a speech last week at Georgetown University, former President Bill Clinton said that Israel and the Palestinians were extremely close to an agreement at the Camp David summit in 2000, when Yasser Arafat refused to close the deal that was offered to him.

According to Clinton, Arafat insisted that a narrow strip of land on the Temple Mount be included in the deal, and walked away when Israel refused to add that to the other far-reaching concessions it was prepared to make.

Clinton’s remarks revealed that a breakthrough in talks between Israel and the Palestinians, particularly on the controversial issue of the division of Jerusalem, was closer at hand in 2000, at the summit he called a “roaring success,” than previously thought. …

Arafat agreed to leave Israel with control over the Western Wall, as well as over the Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, but insisted on keeping 16 meters, or 50 feet, of land leading up to an entrance to the Western Wall tunnels under Palestinian control.

The former president expressed sympathy for the Israeli position, saying, ““if you got in, you could do mayhem to the ruins of the temples.” Arafat subsequently launched the secondintifada a few months later.

Clinton’s recollection of Arafat’s refusal to make peace is particularly timely in wake of  a report last week on Israeli television that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to make significant concessions in order to keep peace negotiations with the Palestinians going. However, instead of coming to an agreement with Israel, Fatah, the main constituent organization of the PA, came to a unity agreement with the terrorist organization Hamas. If the Israeli report is true, it would be another time that the Palestinians walked away from peace.

This wouldn’t be the first time that Mahmoud Abbas refused to come to an agreement with Israel. In 2008, then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made a peace offer to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and never heard back.

Clinton’s remarks are a reminder of the uncompromising positions of Palestinian leaders regardless of who is Prime Minister of Israel.  LINK

RELATED: 

Hamas reiterates that it will never recognize Israel and it will maintain Qassam Brigades

READ CLICK HERE

The Danger of Denial for Israel

Editorial forward.com May 2, 2014 

NOTE: Interesting piece, and as always, interesing discussion in the comments section. 

We are not, of course, John Kerry. We have not, in the past nine months, met 34 times with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and reportedly twice that many times with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, staking so much personal energy to achieve the two-state solution that these men say they want but are unwilling to grasp.

Since we are journalists and not diplomats, we won’t get into trouble for speaking the truth, which is that Israel does risk becoming an anti-democratic state where a minority rules the majority unless the occupation ends. We won’t utter the A-word — Israeli politicians are allowed to, but it’s unwise and inflammatory for anyone else, especially if you are secretary of state, even if you thought you were speaking in a private, off-the-record conversation.

We are, instead, Americans who care deeply about ensuring a secure, Jewish and democratic Israel, and about finding a way to satisfy the legitimate national aspirations of the Palestinians. From this perspective, half a world away, it looks like Netanyahu and Abbas are in a dangerous state of denial.
Politics in America, in Washington especially, hardly provides a model for finding common ground, but it is far enough from Jerusalem and Ramallah to see what those leaders cannot or will not acknowledge. We may be wrong on this. We rather hope so. But the view from here is that the situation there is not likely to get better, or easier, or more advantageous to one side or another anytime soon.
Israel’s continued occupation of roughly 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank will corrode its soul and destroy its democracy, diminish its international standing and hasten the alienation that too many American Jews already feel. Palestinians’ continued refusal to accept the reality of Israel as a predominantly Jewish state will prevent them from establishing their own independent nation. Israel is in the neighborhood for good. Boundaries can be adjusted, compensation for lost property arranged, but the central fact of Israel’s existence is by now immovable. Get used to it.

That’s what it looks like from here, anyhow.

We recognize that, thanks to the separation barrier, a thriving economy and security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority (though who knows how long that will last), most Israelis outside the military don’t have to deal with Palestinians. Even those Jews living among them in the West Bank can travel on separate roads to gated communities. The occupation is largely invisible. It can be easily denied.
Denial is pervasive on the Palestinian side of the Green Line as well. Did Abbas really think he was helping his people by lobbing a grenade into Kerry’s gasping negotiations to try — again — to reach a rapprochement with Hamas? All he did was give Netanyahu the escape route he was waiting for and further postpone an end to his people’s suffering.

The refusal to come to grips with the dangerous, slow-burning reality in the Middle East reminds us of how Americans deny the stark effects of climate change and the human role in furthering environmental degradation. We shrug off dramatic shifts in temperature and the destruction caused by extreme storms, and lull ourselves into thinking that a hybrid car here, a bit of recycling there, is all we need.
The scientists who are trained to see and understand the larger landscape, however, are ringing alarm bells so loud that we have to be deaf to ignore them. In much the same way, John Kerry was calling upon Israeli and Palestinian leaders to see past the denial of convenience and the denial of desperation to a path that could change history. We are not him, of course.

Which is why we can be grateful that he tried. LINK


Read more: http://forward.com/articles/197478/the-danger-of-denial-for-israel/#ixzz30ftDzLFe

Politics trumps peace process

by Tony Badran in NOW at now.mmedia.me

In a move that surprised many in Washington, last Wednesday, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement and its Islamist rival Hamas announced that they had reached an agreement to reconcile and end their seven-year rift. American commentators overwhelmingly approached the news from the angle of its impact on the already faltering US-sponsored peace talks. Unsurprisingly, Abbas's move drew furious reactions from American and Israeli officials. 

What possibly could Abbas be thinking? According to some analysts, the Palestinian leader's motivation was to put pressure on the US and Israel in order to extract concessions in the negotiations. However, the Americans and the Israelis were hardly the first thing on Abbas's mind. Instead, his eye was on something much closer to home, inside Fatah. Namely, Abbas is concerned with heading off the challenge from former Gaza security chief Muhammad Dahlan. But since the Palestinian arena is subordinate to wider Arab politics, Abbas's maneuver also needs to be viewed against the backdrop of Arab dynamics and the efforts of Arab states to project power onto the Palestinian arena. The central Arab player in this sphere is Egypt, in alliance with Dahlan’s other patron, the United Arab Emirates, with Qatar the principal actor on the other side of the divide. Cairo, which has been squeezing Hamas, also seems unimpressed with Abbas and is looking for an alternative to the 79-year-old Palestinian president. 

Against this backdrop, the Palestinian players and their respective Arab backers have been maneuvering for months, leading to the current convergence between Abbas and Hamas. For their part, Egypt and the UAE want to reintroduce Dahlan into Gaza and back into Fatah, and they're helping him build up his ability to reconstitute his influence.    Please CLICK HERE to keep reading

Arab vs Israeli Peace Negotiations and Concessions

from Elder Of Ziyon 

Please CLICK HERE for the link

Why Abbas Reconciled With Hamas

from the NY Times May 1, 2014 OP ED by Ali Jarbawi

NOTE: Amazing how we can all look at the same situation and have such disparate viewpoints. I wonder what the REAL truth, if any, is? 

RAMALLAH, West Bank — A week before the deadline expired on the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks sponsored by John Kerry, the Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas announced an end to their seven-year split. The announcement paved the way for the formation of a Palestinian unity government in the coming weeks, with elections following at least six months later.

The unity deal was greeted in Palestinian circles with a mixture of joyous relief and caution. The split has proved harmful to Palestinians, and has increased their collective suffering over the past seven years. It has also distracted them from major issues like ending the Israeli occupation and establishing an independent state. Indeed, for seven years, ordinary Palestinians have demanded that the two factions reconcile.

Despite the optimism, there is a pervasive fear that this latest deal will be reconciliation in name only. After all, the latest announcement doesn’t contain anything new; it merely declares that earlier agreements will be upheld. This has led many to wonder: Why now? Is this latest agreement more serious than earlier ones? Does it signal a change in strategy on both sides? Or is it merely a necessary tactical step whose effects will soon fade away?

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Abbas to announce his Hamas-backed government will recognize Israel

BY AVI ISSACHAROFF April 25, 2014, 8:37 pm

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will on Saturday formally present the political platform of his anticipated new

government, in the wake of his Fatah faction’s unity pact with Hamas, a Palestinian official told The Times of Israel on Friday.  

The official, who asked not to be named, said Abbas would tell the PLO’s Central Committee that the new government — scheduled to be established within the next five weeks — would recognize Israel and accept previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements. The government would also be committed to a two-state solution, with an independent Palestine alongside Israel.

The new government would also support continued negotiations with Israel in order to achieve the two-state solution, the official said.

Abbas, in his address, will stress that the new government will be comprised of technocrats rather than politicians, the official said. There will be no Fatah or Hamas representatives in the government, he added.

The official expressed criticism of Israel’s bitter response to the unity pact. The PA’s support for Fatah-Hamas reconciliation, he said, was designed to boost peace efforts, not to cause their collapse. “We knew in advance that Hamas would agree to the conditions that we and the Egyptians had put to them,” he said, “to the effect that the new government would be headed by Abu Mazen [Abbas] and would operate according to his directives, and that an agreed date would be fixed for Palestinian elections.”

The economic sanctions that Israel said Thursday it would impose on the PA — including the use of taxes collected by Israel on the PA’s behalf to offset PA debts to Israel — were likely to lead to the weakening of the PA’s security apparatus, he also said.

Read more: Abbas to announce his Hamas-backed government will recognize Israel | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-to-announce-his-hamas-backed-government-will-recognize-israel/#ixzz2zvW0YXss
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Not the Same Old, Same Old

NY Times Thomas Friedman April 15, 2014

At first, the article in The Jerusalem Post last week seemed like the same old, same old: A picture of a ransacked Israel Defense Forces post in the West Bank. Then a quote from Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon: “The State of Israel will not tolerate such criminal activity, which is terrorism in all respects.” Those Palestinians will never quit.

 Oh, wait a minute. Yaalon wasn’t talking about Palestinian terrorists. He was talking about Jewish terrorists, renegade settlers, who slashed the tires of an I.D.F. jeep parked in the settlement of Yitzhar, after Israeli soldiers came to demolish illegal buildings. “Settlers clashed with security forces during Monday night’s demolition and lightly injured six officers,” The Post reported. “A group of 50 to 60 settlers then raided an army post located to the west of the settlement, destroying generators, army equipment, heaters and diesel fuel tanks.” Israel’s justice minister, Tzipi Livni, warned that extremist settlers had crossed a line: “An ideology has flourished that does not recognize the rule of law, that does not recognize us or what we represent.”

These small stories tell a bigger one: We’re not dealing anymore with your grandfather’s Israel, and they’re not dealing anymore with your grandmother’s America either. Time matters, and the near half-century since the 1967 war has changed both of us in ways neither wants to acknowledge — but which the latest impasse in talks only underscores.   PLEASE KEEP READING

Government needs peace, not Bennett, senior minister says

BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF April 12, 2014, 9:02 pm 0


A senior Israeli minister on Saturday attacked Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett, saying his “hypocritical” right wing party was the sole impediment to extending peace talks, and noting that the prime minister could form a government without its 12 members

In an interview Saturday with Channel 2, Environmental Minister Amir Peretz (Hatnua) called Jewish Home the “national hypocrisy party” and said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could weld together an alternative government without it in order to keep the peace talks with the Palestinians afloat.

“The time has come for Netanyahu to decide whether this government is an extreme right-wing government or a government that continues the peace process,” Peretz said. “One thing is clear: there is an alternative to the [current] government without Bennett. There is no alternative to the government without the peace process.”

Peretz’s statements came after Bennett threatened that his 12-seat nationalist-Orthodox Jewish Home would bolt if the government reached an agreement with the Palestinians to release Israeli-Arabs from prison in a bid to salvage the faltering peace talks.

“If the proposition of releasing Israeli murderers is brought before the government, Jewish Home will oppose it,” Bennett said in a statement late Thursday night. “If the proposal passes — Jewish Home with leave any government that releases murderers who have Israeli citizenship.” That stance was formally endorsed by Jewish Home MKs on Friday. 

Keep Reading HERE       RELATED READ THIS TOO

Read more: Government needs peace, not Bennett, senior minister says | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/government-needs-peace-not-bennett-senior-minister-says/#ixzz2yhJnyWZp 
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Greater Men have Tried

originally posted February 2, 2014 in the Times of Israel Blogs by Paula R. Stern

Open Letter to John Kerry:

Dear Secretary of State John Kerry:

Because of my respect for the United States, I will attempt to afford you the honor you think you so richly deserve. It’s hard to speak to you with anything but anger, hard to feel the need, again, to start from the beginning because you clearly choose to ignore history in your quest for glory. It is a quest destined to fail but its outcome, even, or more accurately especially, in failure, will hurt Israel.

Greater men than you have tried to make, to force, peace on the Middle East. I promise you, you will fail too. You will fail because you are not addressing the root cause of the problem. You, like so many before you, take the easy way out. Blame Israel. It is so easy to do, and so stupid.

I could speak to you of history – a history longer and greater than you can imagine. I could speak to you of injustices – yes, our land is filled with the graves of those murdered for the unjust reason that they lived here, or traveled abroad, or ate in the wrong restaurant, or took the wrong bus.  CLICK HERE TO KEEP READING

Read more: Greater Men have Tried | Paula R. Stern | Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/greater-men-have-tried/#ixzz2ydddO0lo
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"There Has Never Been a Palestinian State - That's a Lie"

Follow Virtual Jerusalem on  and 

 Date Posted: 2014-04-10 09:24:06


Economics Minister and Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett has continued his calls to annex parts of Judea and Samaria, in response to the repeated failure of peace talks with the Palestinian Authority.

Following a letter yesterday to Prime Minister Netanyahu, in which he urged the PM implement his "Plan B" alternative to a "two-state solution" with the PA, Bennett took his message to the international media last night, in an interview with CNN.

Dismissing suggestions that Israel was responsible for the collapse of peace talks by building homes in Jerusalem, Bennett pointed out that the talks had already ground to a halt after PA leader Mahmoud Abbas refused to even recognize Israel's existence as the nation-state of the Jewish people, while simultaneously demanding Israeli recognition of a "Palestinian homeland."
 
"The reality... is that the era of these negotiations is over - it's time for plan B... a new approach," he said. "The approach that we've been applying for 20 years now clearly has reached its end."

Bennett rejected out of hand calls for Israel to freeze construction in Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem, as part of proposals to eventually partition the city between the Jewish state and a future "Palestinian state".

"Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital for just about 3,000 years, and just like I would never suggest to freeze building in London, where you're sitting" Israel should not be expected to "freeze our own building in our own state", he said.

Responding to his interviewer's claim that "there has been Palestinian life in Jerusalem for thousands of years," he retorted: "You're talking about a Palestinian presence? Has there ever been a Palestinian state? Show me what its flag was, show me what its anthem was, show me who its leader is - show me anything that mentions the word 'Palestinians' more than 65 or 80 years ago. CLICK HERE TO KEEP READING

The Crisis in the Peace Talks Was Pre-Planned by the Palestinians

Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi, April 10, 2014
Institute for Contemporary Affairs, founded jointly with the Wechsler Family Foundation - See more at: http://jcpa.org/article/crisis-peace-talks/#sthash.QVHElocF.dpuf

NOTE: SUPERB, long in-depth article 

Vol. 14, No. 9    April 10, 2014 

• In March 2014, Saeb Erekat, the head of the Palestinian negotiating team, prepared a 65-page document that surveys the diplomatic process and offers a list of recommendations for the PA to achieve Palestinian sovereignty in the territories demarcated by the 1967 lines. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has recently implemented some of these recommendations.

• The recommendations include submitting a request to immediately join the Geneva Conventions; declaring the impossibility of extending the negotiations after the end of the nine-month period on April 29, 2014; and opposing the Israeli proposal that the settlement blocs become part of Israel in any final agreement.

• The plan also includes activating bilateral committees with Russia, the EU, and the UN, and cooperating with the monitoring committee of the Arab Peace Initiative, to muster support for the Palestinian anti-settlement position; urging the states of the world to uphold the European Union’s guidelines regarding settlement activity; and escalating the peaceful popular struggle against settlements and the [security] fence.

• The PA’s latest moves reflect the long-term strategy Abbas has been implementing, which involves using diplomatic means to obtain international recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state along the 1967 lines without the Palestinians having to make concessions on the fundamental issues of the conflict, particularly the refugee issue and what is called the “right of return.”

• The signing of the 15 international conventions is part of a gradual Palestinian move to statehood which, unlike a unilateral declaration of statehood, does not occur with one move. Abbas has previously made political moves in defiance of the United States and Israel without fearing the pressures and threats directed at him, as in his November 2012 appeal to the UN General Assembly for an upgrade of the PLO’s status to UN nonmember observer state. Now, too, he feels confident in his ability to take unilateral steps without incurring serious damage.

• The Palestinians believe they can use the diplomatic-legal arena to overcome Israel’s power and gradually subject it to diplomatic and economic pressures to unilaterally withdraw from the West Bank in a way similar to Israel’s unconditional withdrawal from Gaza in 2005.

The Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process encountered a crisis and a dead-end with the unilateral announcement on April 1, 2014, by Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), chairman of the Palestinian Authority, of Palestine’s application to join fifteen international institutions and conventions, most notably the Fourth Geneva Convention.

- See more at: http://jcpa.org/article/crisis-peace-talks/#sthash.QVHElocF.dpuf   CLICK TO KEEP READING

Israel ‘Deeply Disappointed’ by Kerry’s Remarks on Peace Talks

NY TIMES By ISABEL KERSHNERAPRIL 9, 2014

JERUSALEM — In an unusually pointed rebuke of its ally, Israel said on Wednesday that it was “deeply disappointed” by Secretary of State John Kerry’s remarks a day earlier that appeared to lay primary blame on Israel for the crisis in the American-brokered Middle East peace talks.

The Israeli-Palestinian dispute that has brought the talks to the brink of collapse appeared to be developing into an open row between Israel and the United States, even as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were said to be planning a third meeting here this week with American mediators to try to resolve the crisis.

In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, Mr. Kerry said that both the Israeli and Palestinian sides bore responsibility for “unhelpful” actions, but that the precipitating event was Israel’s announcement of 700 new housing units for Jewish settlement in an area of Jerusalem across the 1967 lines, in territory the Palestinians claim for a future state.

“Poof, that was sort of the moment,” Mr. Kerry said. “We find ourselves where we are.”  CONTINUE READING HERE

Jewish and Arab Refugees Must be Compared

from huffingtonpost.com April 8, 2014  by Lyn Julius

A few weeks ago the Al-Jazeera Arabic channel carried a report on starving Palestinian refugees in a Syrian camp. In a sequence that must have slipped the editor's notice, an elderly man moaned in desperation to the camera: "Take us to the Jews. They will feed us!"

In that unguarded moment, two things were revealed: first -- Palestinian refugees are being deprived of a humanitarian solution to their plight. Second -- Arabs know full well that Israelis look after their own -- and not only their own -- but try and help others.

Nowhere is the contrast more stark than in the treatment of the two sets of refugees which arose out of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. A fair proportion of the 711,000 Arab refugees were left to languish -- and now starve -- in refugee camps as a longstanding reproach to Israel. Some 850,000 Jewish refugees were ultimately absorbed and given full citizens' rights in Israel and the West. KEEP READING

Stand Firm, John Kerry

It’s time for the secretary of state to insist on America’s position on Middle East peace.

By ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI, FRANK CARLUCCI, LEE HAMILTON, CARLA A. HILLS, THOMAS PICKERING and HENRY SIEGMAN

 

April 08, 2014

NOTE: This is from POLITICO today. Look at the signers of this letter, then read it, then count to 10. I'm just posting it here because its news. But I am interested in your thoughts. That said, I expect the heat to go up with this piece... 

We commend Secretary of State John Kerry’s extraordinary efforts to renew Israeli-Palestinian talks and negotiations for a framework for a peace accord, and the strong support his initiative has received from President Barack Obama.

We believe these efforts, and the priority Kerry has assigned to them, have been fully justified. However, we also believe that the necessary confidentiality that Secretary Kerry imposed on the resumed negotiations should not preclude a far more forceful and public expression of certain fundamental U.S. positions:

YOU HAVE TO KEEP READING. CLICK HERE.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/04/stand-firm-john-kerry-105483.html#ixzz2yLPToNDL

Netanyahu blames Palestinians for collapsing peace talks

By William Booth, Sunday, April 6, 10:03 AM Washington Post

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broke his silence on the collapsing peace talks Sunday by blaming Palestinian leaders for the current crisis and threatening retaliatory steps to punish the Palestinians.

In remarks at his weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that just as the parties were nearing an agreement last week to extend the U.S.-brokered negotiations through the end of 2014, the Palestinian leaders announced their decision to sign on to 15 treaties and conventions under the auspices of the United Nations. 

“The Palestinians’ threats to appeal to the U.N. will not affect us. The Palestinians have much to lose by this unilateral move,” Netanyahu said. “These will only push a peace agreement farther away, and unilateral steps on their part will be met with unilateral steps on our part.”

Israel’s retaliatory measures could include withholding transfers of millions of dollars in taxes and fees that Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.

The Palestinians say that it is Israel that has pushed the talks toward collapse.

To restart the peace process, Netanyahu promised in July to release 104 long-serving Palestinians prisoners, many convicted of murdering Israelis, and in return the Palestinians agreed not to seek greater recognition as a state from the United Nations.

The Israelis released three groups, a total of 78 prisoners, but balked last week at freeing the last batch of 26 inmates.  CLICK TO KEEP READING

Kerry-Abbas Visit Canceled as Mideast Talks Falter

NY Times April 1, 2014

NOTE: VERY sad. Once again. 


Tuesday night, after President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority defied the United States and Israel by taking concrete steps to join 15 international agencies — a move to gain the benefits of statehood outside the negotiations process.

The move, which appeared to catch American and Israeli officials by surprise, prompted Secretary of State John Kerry to cancel a planned return to the region on Wednesday, in which he had expected to complete an agreement extending negotiations through 2015.

In that emerging deal, the United States would release an American convicted of spying for Israel more than 25 years ago, while Israel would free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and slow down construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. 

Mr. Abbas, who had vowed not to seek membership in international bodies until the April 29 expiration of the talks that Mr. Kerry started last summer, said he was taking this course because Israel had failed to release a fourth batch of long-serving Palestinian prisoners by the end of March, as promised.
Israeli officials say they are not bound by their pledge because no meaningful negotiations had taken place since November.

American officials, while rattled, said the Palestinians appeared to be using leverage against Israel rather than trying to scuttle the negotiations. Mr. Abbas, they noted, did not move toward joining the International Criminal Court, a step Israel fears most because the Palestinians could use the court to contest Israel’s presence in the West Bank.

Still, a senior American official said Mr. Kerry’s decision not to return to the region immediately reflected a growing impatience in the White House, which believes his mediating efforts have reached their limit and that the two sides need to work their way out of the current impasse.

In announcing the moves, Mr. Abbas said, “This is our right.” He has been under pressure from other Palestinian leaders and the public to leverage the nonmember observer-state status they won at the United Nations in 2012 to join a total of 63 international bodies. “We do not want to use this right against anybody or to confront anybody,” he said, as he signed the membership applications live on Palestinian television. “We don’t want to collide with the U.S. administration. We want a good relationship with Washington because it helped us and exerted huge efforts. But because we did not find ways for a solution, this becomes our right.” The United States voted against the Palestinians’ 2012 bid in the United Nations General Assembly, and it blocked a similar effort in 2011 at the Security Council, arguing that negotiations with Israel were the only path to peace and statehood.  CONTINUE READING HERE

The Hard Truth of Peace

Mar 27, 2014

By: Brett Krasner, Columbia University, Hasbara Fellow '14 from Hasbara Fellowships (hasbarafellowships.org)

NOTE: Another educated, thoughtful student. We're kvel'n! 

The peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are very close to failing. The nine-month talks, which are set to expire in April, have not yet created any major agreements between either of the sides. In order to extend negotiations, the Palestinian Authority (PA) demands that Israel freeze settlement building and release the final batch of prisoners (many of them convicted terrorists) that Israel initially agreed to release. The Israeli government is wary of releasing these prisoners if the talks are not guaranteed to be fruitful. What should be done? Israel should play along and release the prisoners and freeze settlement building outside of the major settlement blocks. In the worst-case scenario of the talks eventually breaking down, it would allow Israel to deflect accusations of intransigence onto the PA. In the best-case scenario, it could lead to a continuation of negotiations that have a chance of succeeding. The negotiations themselves matter because if they fail, Israel will be burdened with international isolation and delegitimization, economic boycotts, and destabilization in the West Bank.  Such a disaster is unneeded especially when Israel needs all the help that it can get with battling the Iranian nuclear program and other serious threats.

Between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, there are approximately twelve million residents. In this population, there are approximately 5.9 million Arabs and 6.1 million Jews. Of the Arabs residing in the area, 2.57 million live in the West Bank, 1.66 million live in Gaza, and 1.68 million live in the State of Israel.  CLICK HERE TO KEEP READING

Turning on the 'Jewish state'

There'll be no peace if the Palestinians don’t contribute their share; but they won't contribute their share unless people who want peace insist they contribute it.

By Ari Shavit | Mar. 20, 2014 | 6:00 AM |  14 from Ha aretz  (haaretz.com)

In Washington, New York and even Tel Aviv, an overall offensive is being waged on the Jewish people’s national state. American and Israeli peace seekers are furiously attacking the demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

Suddenly not only the settlements are a war crime, but also the Jewish people’s demand to recognize its right to self-definition. Suddenly Zionism’s fundamental idea, which was recognized in the Balfour Declaration, the UN’s partition resolution and the Israeli Declaration of Independence, is not legitimate.

The thought that alongside the Palestinian (non-democratic) nation-state there will be a (democratic) Jewish nation-state makes many good people fly off the handle. People who are usually committed to equality are not ready to grant the Jews what they firmly demand for the Palestinians. People who want peace are rejecting out of hand the threshold demand of peace – real mutual recognition.

More than enough has been said about the essence of the matter. It’s a conflict of mutual blindness. We didn’t recognize the existence of a Palestinian people entitled to its own sovereign state and the Palestinians didn’t recognize the existence of a Jewish people entitled to its own sovereign state. It’s clear, therefore, that the end of the conflict must entail an end to the blindness. It must involve each side’s recognition of the other, whose existence and rights it has ignored for the past 100 years or so.  CLICK TO KEEP READING