De Israelische Terreur 1004

Palestinians accuse US of killing peace hopes

Reuters/Jerusalem

A Palestinian rides a donkey cart past houses destroyed during Israel’s three-week offensive launched last December, in the East Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza yesterday

Pointing an accusing finger at the US, the Palestinians yesterday said Washington’s backing for Israeli refusal to halt Jewish settlement expansion had killed any hope of reviving peace negotiations soon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, buoyed by new-found support from the Obama administration, urged the Palestinians to “get a grip” and drop their settlement freeze precondition for restarting talks suspended since December.

On a one-day Middle East visit on Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsed Israel’s view that settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank should not be a bar to resuming negotiations—contradicting the Palestinian position.

Netanyahu has proposed limiting building for now to some 3,000 settler homes already approved by Israel in the West Bank. He does not regard building in occupied East Jerusalem, annexed in defiance of international opposition, as settlement.

US President Barack Obama himself, after persuading Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in September to meet Netanyahu in New York, called only for “restraint” in settlement, not the “freeze” he had previously proposed.

Stung by Obama’s about-face and Clinton’s remarks, the Palestinians voiced their frustration.

“The negotiations are in a state of paralysis, and the result of Israel’s intransigence and America’s back-pedalling is that there is no hope of negotiations on the horizon,” said Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina.

He said the Palestinians were calling for the Arab League to formulate a “unified Palestinian-Arab position” on the stalled peace process.

Netanyahu told his cabinet that US envoy George Mitchell would continue efforts yesterday to revive negotiations.

“We hope very much that the Palestinians will get a grip and engage in the diplomatic process,” Netanyahu said. “It is in the interests of Israel and the Palestinians.”

Abbas faces intense domestic pressure from Hamas Islamists who control the Gaza Strip, and any compromise on settlements could hurt him politically in a run-up to Palestinian elections he has scheduled for January 24. Hamas has rejected holding a vote.

Some 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem alongside 2.8mn Palestinians. Israel captured the territories in a 1967 war with its Arab neighbours. Palestinians say settlements could deny them a viable state.

A US-backed peace ‘road map’ of 2003 says Israel should halt settlement activity. Abbas, however, took part in a negotiating process launched at Annapolis in late 2007 by Obama’s predecessor George W Bush. Abbas suspended negotiations over Israel’s offensive last December in the Gaza Strip.

Having invested considerable capital in seeking a solution for Palestinians and Israelis as part of a broader thrust to help stabilise the Middle East, Obama faces an early setback in his presidency if the two sides refuse even to talk.

Netanyahu’s coalition, including pro-settler groups, does not believe Abbas is strong enough to deliver Israel security in any deal. Some analysts see Netanyahu’s co-operation with Obama’s demand for a resumption of talks on establishing a Palestinian state as intended mainly to ensure US support against Iran.

Palestinians warn that popular frustration with the failure to produce a statehood deal could spill over into an upsurge in violence, even if few have appetite for a broad new uprising.

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