MIDEAST: Little hope of breakthrough ahead of renewed peace talks, as Israeli and Palestinian governments trade blame

Record ID: 1530320

  • Title: MIDEAST: Little hope of breakthrough ahead of renewed peace talks, as Israeli and Palestinian governments trade blame
  • Date: 4th May 2010
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF MANARA SQUARE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) IYAD KINDAH RAMALLAH RESIDENT SAYING: "By God a resolution? I don't think so, it is all empty talk. It is all empty talk, Israel remains much more powerful than we are so they are giving us anaesthetic, that is all they are doing." MAN LEANING AGAINST RAILING CLOSEUP OF HANDS EFRATA, WEST BANK (MAY 3, 2010) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF EFRATA SETTLEMENT ROAD SIGN FOR EFRATA SETTLEMENT EXTERIOR OF COFFEE SHOP IN EFRATA RESIDENTS OF EFRATA SAT IN COFFEE SHOP (SOUNDBITE) (English) AVIVIT, RESIDENT OF EFRATA SAYING: "It makes me very sad that in America you can have a Palestinian living new door to a Jew, and they can live peacefully, but here you can't have that, and it won't be as long as they don't change their attitude towards us as the people who Israel belongs too, now or two thousand years ago however you want to look at it, right now we are the home holders." RESIDENTS SAT IN COFFEE SHOP (SOUNDBITE) (English) AVIVIT, RESIDENT OF EFRATA SAYING: "Unfortunately I don't think these peace talks are going to help, but I am happy that he (Netanyahu) wants to make the Americans happy again, and throw them a bone." EXTERIOR OF COFFEE SHOP TRAVELLING SHOT OF EFRATA SETTLEMENT SEEN FROM ROAD
  • Embargoed: 18th May 2010 22:05
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA81RXC925FJQX4JSJ1Y1WZ1X7B
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Israeli and Palestinian government officials were not optimistic over the out come of renewed peace talks, due to begin later this week.
    Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister said Israel cannot be pressurised into accepting a Palestinian State on any other terms other than its own,
    "We cannot allow having a Palestinian state on the expense of the Jewish state, and this is what we are here dealing with and this is why the Israelis should not be, should not be viewed or be judged with any stopwatch or with any ideas which are not home grown, which are not based on a mutual understanding between us and the Palestinians," Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said on Monday (May 3).
    Ayalon went on to question the Palestinian commitment to the peace process,
    "Today, as we are just before, just days before launching the talks with the Palestinians, the question that I want to raise to all of us but specifically to the Palestinians, are they really a partner to this peace," he added.
    Members of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation executive committee accused Israel of trying to undermine the talks before they had even began.
    "These are (Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon comments), lets say pre-emptive moves, they are attempting to undermine the talks by attacking the Palestinian side, even before the talks start and, I mean, what we are looking at is not just what they are saying but we are looking at what they are doing, it is very clear there is little confidence or trust but at the same time we believe that the American push to try to launch such talks is a real test for the American will and ability to influence Israeli behaviour at the same time it is a test for the Israelis that have so far evaded any kind of implementation of their obligations as per the agreements," Hanan Ashrawi, a PLO executive committee member said.
    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would meet U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington this month to try to advance Middle East peace.
    Obama's peace efforts received a boost when Arab states approved four months of U.S.-mediated talks, whose expected start in March was delayed by Israel's announcement of a settlement project on occupied land near Jerusalem.
    Calling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a direct security concern to the United States, Washington has pushed hard for a resumption of talks suspended since December 2008.
    But many observers question whether the latest effort can succeed where years of diplomacy have failed.
    Abbas's last meeting with Obama was in September in New York, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also attended that meeting -- part of Obama's efforts to get the peace process moving again.
    U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last week she expected the so-called "proximity talks", to be mediated by special envoy George Mitchell, to begin this week.
    PLO officials said the Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee was likely to convene within days to give its approval, opening the way for Mitchell to arrive later in the week.
    "The PLO Executive Committee will meet in order to assess whether Israel has actually stopped settlement activities, particularly in and around Jerusalem and whether they are committed to all the steps required by the Road Map and whether they will accept discussing substantive issue, then there will be serious talks. But, as things stand now there is very little hope that this Israeli government will comply with the requirements of a genuine negotiating process because they are already trying to create facts on the ground and the extreme ideology has taken over the language of the reconciliation," Hanan Ashrawi, a PLO executive committee member said to Reuters.
    Abbas has long insisted Israel freeze Jewish settlement building before any negotiations resume, and he had rejected a temporary construction moratorium that Netanyahu ordered in the occupied West Bank last November as insufficient.
    Netanyahu, who heads a pro-settler government, has pledged not to curb Israeli home construction in East Jerusalem.
    But after angering Washington by announcing a 1,600-home project -- during a visit in March by Vice President Joe Biden -- Israel has not approved new homes for Jews in East Jerusalem, in what some Israeli politicians called a de facto freeze.
    West Bank residents from both sides of the conflict showed little or no confidence in the new round of indirect talks, each side blames the other for impasse.
    "By God a resolution? I don't think so, it is all empty talk. It is all empty talk, Israel remains much more powerful than we are so they are giving us anaesthetic, that is all they are doing," Iyad Kindah, a resident of Ramallah said.
    "It makes me very sad that in America you can have a Palestinian living new door to a Jew, and they can live peacefully, but here you can't have that, and it won't be as long as they don't change their attitude towards us as the people who Israel belongs too, now or two thousand years ago however you want to look at it, right now we are the home holders," Avivit, a settler living in Efrata settlement in the West Bank said.
    "Unfortunately I dont't think these peace talks are going to help, but I am happy that he (Netanyahu) wants to make the Americans happy again, and throw them a bone," Avivit continued.
    Israel captured East Jerusalem along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip in a 1967 war, and considers all of Jerusalem its capital, a claim that is not recognised internationally.
    Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they intend to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
    Abbas said the Palestinians had nothing to fear from what he described as Obama's promise not to tolerate actions from either side that could jeopardise peacemaking.
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