Israel-Palestine: Netanyahu's "Gestures" After Talks with Mitchell (Yenidunya)

After his contact with US special envoy George Mitchell, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that as part of the indirect talks he would be open to a "frank exchange of views" regarding the core issues. Thus the Netanyahu Government looks towards direct talks after agreement on common points on core issues, especially on borders.

Israel-Palestine: Washington’s Carrots and Sticks for Netanyahu and Abbas (Yenidunya)

Meanwhile, Israel is aiming to satisfy both Washington and Ramallah through the  "gesture" of  a de facto freeze on construction in the eastern sector of Jerusalem.


Although Netanyahu has said repeatedly that East Jerusalem will remain under Israeli sovereignty, Jerusalem Councilman Meir Margalit of the dovish Meretz Party said on Monday that top Jerusalem officials told him that Netanyahu's office had ordered a halt to building. The shift occurredafter Washington expressed anger over the construction plans announced during US.Vice President Joe Biden's visit. Margalit added that the committees that deal with construction are not even meeting anymore.

Despite Haaretz's report in January that dozens of settlements in the West Bank were going through a building boom, the Netanyahu Government is claiming "progress" after the most recent meeting with Mitchell. Israel Defense Forces troops on Tuesday destroyed at least 10 Jewish structures in the West Bank as a requirement of the Prime Minister's declaration of a 10-month-freeze in expansion.

Israel-Palestine: Washington's Carrots and Sticks for Netanyahu and Abbas (Yenidunya)

Following his second meeting with U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu briefed his government on Sunday and said that it would soon become clear whether there would be Middle East peace talks. He added that Israel and the United States want to "begin a peace process immediately."

In a statement summing up his visit, Mitchell said he held "positive and productive talks" with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in an effort "to improve the atmosphere for peace and for proceeding with proximity talks".

On Thursday, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, received an official invitation to the proximity talks. In this message to Ramallah, the Obama Administration confessed that Washington had been unable to get a commitment from Israel to halt construction in East Jerusalem but had received a guarantee that Israel would refrain from "significant" actions in the eastern part of the city during negotiations.



To  get Ramallah's consent for the beginning of proximity talks, the Obama Administration also put forward the idea of an Obama-Abbas meeting, an invitation confirmed by Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo, told Palestinian radio that there is talk about an invitation for Abbas to visit Washington, possibly next month.

Washington also reportedly lined up possible sanctions against Israel in case of a failure to comply with its commitments. American officials reported said that if Netanyahu takes an uncompromising stance in the negotiations, like the one he displays in public, Israel's Labor Party might quit the coalition and pave the way for a new government.

The US message to Netanyahu: "natural growth" is OK in East Jerusalem during negotiations, along with other confidence-building measures, as long as you are ready to change your position on East Jerusalem's status and to come to terms with Ramallah on other border issues at the end of indirect talks. Otherwise, the Labor Party will be out, the coalition government collapses, and you will lose your Premiership.

And to Abbas: if you co-operate and accept that Israeli "natural growth" is not a barrier to discussions leading to a settlement, you will get the public acclamation, symbolised by your trip to Washington, of being an international leader.

Palestine Analysis: Breaking Down Israel's Counter Offer on Talks

On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that there would be no construction freeze in Jerusalem; however, he offered confidence-building gestures, such as allowing the opening of Palestinian Authority institutions in the eastern part of the city, transferring additional West Bank territory to Palestinian security control, and discussing all the core issues of the conflict during proximity talks with the Palestinian Authority.

Israel-Palestine Follow-Up:”Apartheid” Deportation Orders, Settlements

This counter-offer was put out by the Netanyahu Government through media organizations on Friday. The follow-up analysis was that Israel would announce an official shift in its Palestinian policy: willingness for an interim agreement in the West Bank that would include the establishment of a Palestinian state within temporary borders.


The formula of a Palestinian state within temporary borders was included in the second stage of the road map of 2003. However, this time the counter-offer, although it requires Israel to withdraw from more territory and perhaps even evacuate settlements, excludes the status of Jerusalem and only draws temporary borders with the West Bank.

U.S. Mideast special envoy George Mitchell met Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Netanyahu on Friday. Netanyahu, ready to take any dismissal of his offer as confirmation that the Palestinians are  “stubborn and rejectionist”, told Mitchell at the beginning of the meeting:

I look forward to working with the Obama administration to move peace forward. We are serious about it, we know you are serious about it and we hope the Palestinians respond.

Not only Ramallah rejected Israel’s counter-offer; Hamas’s leader in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniya, said Thursday that resumption of peace talks with Israel is a cover-up for the "Judaization of Jerusalem".

Meanwhile, the first signs of Israel’s new military order, which can deport tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank, emerged. A Palestinian from the West Bank, Ahmad Sabah,was forcibly deported to the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, immediately after his release from detention in Israel.