28/10/11 - Israel ready to submit borders proposal to Quartet

Breaking from previous position, J'lem willing to come forward with comprehensive plan within three months; follows Blair meeting.

In a departure from previous policy, the government has agreed to put forward a comprehensive proposal on borders within three months, according to a Quartet communiqué issued on Thursday.

The statement, put out following separate meetings the Quartet envoys and Quartet representative Tony Blair held in Jerusalem with Israeli and Palestinian officials on Wednesday, said the parties agreed with the Quartet to “come forward with comprehensive proposals on territory and security within three months.”

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been reluctant to present a detailed map of where he envisions a future Palestinian state, wary of revealing a key negotiating card before knowing what he can expect in return from the Palestinians on issues such as refugees, Jerusalem and recognition of a Jewish state.

Blair, in an interview he gave earlier this week with the Los Angeles Times, was asked whether either side has provided the Quartet with a detailed proposal on borders and security.

“The Palestinians, of course, did table a proposal in the last talks that they had in Annapolis [Maryland, in 2008 during the Bush administration].

They were detailed, significant proposals on borders at least, in and around land swaps.

This Israeli government has not produced such a proposal, and that’s obviously one thing we have to explore with them,” he said.

One Israeli government official, when asked about Israel’s border proposals, said Jerusalem wanted to “facilitate” the Quartet’s efforts to launch direct negotiations without preconditions. He stressed, however, that it was important that the Quartet meetings don’t become a substitute for direct negotiations between the sides, but only as a way to get those talks started.

Blair explained in his interview that the Quartet was trying to get detailed proposals from Israel and the Palestinians on borders and security, to gauge how wide the gaps were, and whether there was a basis for negotiation.

The Quartet reiterated in its statement that the objective of the current efforts is “direct negotiations leading toward an agreement by the end of 2012.” The statement said that the envoys would meet regularly with the sides over the next 90 days to review progress.

The statement also reiterated the Quartet’s call for the parties to “refrain from provocative actions” so the negotiations can be effective, diplomatic code for Israel to stop settlement construction.

Government officials, meanwhile, denied reports of US pressure on Israel to freeze construction now, including in Jerusalem neighborhoods beyond the Green Line, such as the recently approved project in Gilo, to lure the PA back to talks.

Netanyahu, the official said, has made clear that the type of housing-start freeze he implemented in the West Bank, but not in east Jerusalem, at the end of 2009 for 10 months was not going to repeat itself.

A spokesman at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, when asked if Washington was calling on Israel to freeze settlement construction, said the American position on settlements has been known and consistent for 30 years.

“We consider settlements and construction in east Jerusalem to be actions that appear to be, or actually are, prejudicing the outcomes of negotiations,” he said.

The spokesman said the US “urged both sides to refrain from any sort of unilateral action that would impede the successful outcome of direct negotiations,” and added that the American position was for the resumption of direct negotiations without any conditions.

27/10/11 - Quartet seeks Israel-Palestinian peace proposals

Talks between envoys of the international peacemaking Quartet and Israeli and Palestinian officials in Jerusalem ended with a pledge to introduce "comprehensive proposals" but no deal on new peace talks.

In a statement released late on Wednesday, the peacemaking group, which comprises the United States, United Nations,European Union and Russia, said its envoys had met separately with both sides in a bid to kickstart long-stalled negotiations.

Last month, the Quartet called for talks to begin by October 23, a deadline that has already passed, with the goal of reaching a deal within a year.

But Israel and the Palestinians interpreted the call differently, with Israel saying the Quartet sought talks without preconditions and the Palestinians saying the group supported their demand for a freeze to settlement construction.

The talks on Wednesday did not include any Israeli-Palestinian interaction, and ended with both sides expressing "their readiness to engage with the Quartet," the group's statement said.

"The parties agreed with the Quartet to come forward with comprehensive proposals on territory and security within three months in the context of our shared commitment to the objective of direct negotiations leading toward an agreement by the end of 2012," the statement added.

The Quartet set out its proposed timeline for new talks on September 23, the same day the Palestinians submitted their bid to join the UN as a member state.

But so far the framework has failed to get off the ground, with Israel saying talks should start without preconditions and the Palestinians refusing to talk without a clear framework and a freeze to Israeli settlement construction.

Negotiations have been on hold since late September 2010, when they ground to a halt shortly after they were relaunched in Washington, also over the issue of settlement construction.

20/10/11 - Palestinians to push for UN membership Nov. 11

GENEVA (AP) — Palestinian diplomats are trying to muster support for a U.N. Security Council vote in New York on Nov. 11 on their bid for membership in the global body, a senior Palestinian official said Thursday.

U.N. diplomats said earlier this week that a Security Council committee considering the membership bid would deliver a report on that day, and that ambassadors would then decide on the next steps.

Any member of the Security Council can request a vote on the Palestinian request, but a resolution recommending membership requires a minimum of nine "yes" votes and no veto by one of the council's five permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russiaand the U.S.

Once the 15-member Security Council recommends a country's membership its application must be approved by a two-thirds vote in the 193-member General Assembly.

Washington, Israel's closest ally, has already pledged to use its veto if Palestinian membership gets the support of nine or more council members.

"We still have time until Nov. 11, so there is a lot of efforts pushing certain countries to voting in favor," the Palestinian envoy to the U.N. in Geneva, Ibrahim Khraishi, told The Associated Press.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki told reporters in late September that the membership bid has support so far from eight Security Council members: Russia, China, India, South Africa, Brazil, Lebanon, Nigeria and Gabon. He said the Palestinians are lobbying for more votes, including from Bosnia and Colombia.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited Colombia on Oct. 11 and was told by President Juan Manuel Santos that Colombia will only recognize a Palestinian state that has been established through negotiations with Israel, which leaves Bosnia as the likely key to a ninth "yes" vote.

Khraishi said "several parties are working" to secure the votes, but declined to elaborate. "I think that we will succeed to get the nine," he added.

Elections to replace five nonpermanent members of the Security Council on Friday could create a grouping even less likely to approve the Palestinians' bid, if it rolls over into the new year.

Winners will take their posts Jan. 1. Strong Palestinian backers Brazil and Lebanon, along with Nigeria and Gabon, will be leaving the council at the same time.

Guatemala, running unopposed for the lone Latin America seat, has never recognized a Palestinian state. Neither has Slovenia, one of three candidates for the East European seat being vacated by Bosnia.

The rest of the candidates have all recognized a Palestinian state: Togo, Mauritania, Morocco, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Pakistan and Kyrgystan.

"The addition of Guatemala and the subtraction of Brazil would make it a bit more difficult" to get statehood approved, if the vote is held over, said Warren Hoge, senior adviser for external relations at the International Peace Institute, a New York think tank.

Abbas delivered the Palestinian application to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sept. 23. Hours later, the Quartet of Mideast mediators — the U.S., U.N., EU and Russia — called for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in a month, with the goal of a peace agreement by the end of 2012.

The Israelis and Palestinians are scheduled to meet separately with the Quartet on Tuesday.

10/10/11 - Mideast Quartet Discusses Way Forward on Peace Process

Photo: Reuters

Israeli and Palestinian protesters with their respective flags (file photo montage)

Two weeks after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas formally applied for statehood recognition at the United Nations, envoys of the so-called Middle East peace Quartet met in Brussels Sunday to plot a way forward. The talks came as one U.N. agency appears to be heading toward recognizing full Palestinian membership.

The Brussels talks among members of the Middle East Quartet - the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union - follow its call in September for stalled peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians to resume within 30 days. The Quartet wants the two sides to reach a deal next year. 

The Middle East peace process was top news at the United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York last month, when Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas formally applied to the Security Council for full U.N. membership. The United States has threatened to veto the bid, arguing that Palestinian statehood can only be achieved through direct peace talks with Israel. But in a September interview with the BBC, the Quartet's special representative Tony Blair sounded an optimistic note. 

"Although there's a lot of sound and fury [and] obviously strong rhetoric in the General Assembly, there's also a very strong belief on the part of the international community that now is the time to get back to negotiations without pre-conditions."

Blair said the Quartet members are close to agreeing on details of peace negotiations. He said that would make it easier to bridge differences between Palestinians and Israelis once they actually sit down for talks. 

But analyst Yossi Mekelberg, of the policy institute Chatham House and Regents College in London, says the Quartet has failed to forcefully push the two sides toward a peace settlement that includes all the major sticking points.

"If they can't actually make their will happen, who would? Either they come not only with another declaration but a timetable - set what the Quartet wants - and tell the Palestinians and Israelis…are you serious about it?.. if you're serious about it, really become serious about it." 

Mekelberg also believes the Quartet needs to offer specific carrots and sticks to move the process forward. 

"We are ready to support you. We'll finance any peace agreements [that] will be costly. We'll deal with the diplomatic implications of dealing with the refugees. We'll deal with the security issues …we'll provide you with all of this, if you're serious. But we'll also tell you what's going to happen if you're not serious." 

U.S. President Barack Obama faces an election year in 2012, further complicating chances of reaching a meaningful peace agreement. But in Paris, the Palestinian push for recognition gained traction last week, when the board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization agreed to vote on Palestinian membership later this month.

3/10/11 - Israel says ‘yes’ to Quartet framework for talks

After consulting with ministers, Netanyahu welcomes Quartet's call for "direct negotiations without pre-conditions."

The government on Sunday formally accepted the Quartet’s proposal for restarting negotiations with the Palestinians, squarely throwing the ball back at the Palestinian Authority, which has yet to accept the formula.

Following a meeting of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s eight-man inner cabinet, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a carefully-written English-language statement saying Israel “welcomes the Quartet’s call for direct negotiations between the parties without preconditions, as called for by both President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu.”

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“While Israel has some concerns,” the statement read, “it will raise them at the appropriate time.

“Israel calls on the Palestinian Authority to do the same and to enter into direct negotiations without delay.”

Sunday’s inner cabinet meeting was the second one on the matter since the Quartet issued a formula for renewing talks following Netanyahu’s and PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s speeches to the UN General Assembly on September 23, during which Abbas formally filed a request to the Security Council for full UN membership for “Palestine.”

The Quartet statement urged the parties “to overcome the current obstacles and resume direct bilateral Israeli-Palestinian negotiations without delay or preconditions.”

It proposed a “preparatory meeting” between the parties within a month to agree to an agenda and “method of proceeding in the negotiation,” and suggested that the two sides commit to the objective of reaching an agreement “within a timeframe agreed to by the parties but not longer than the end of 2012.”

The statement also said the expectation is that the parties will come up with a comprehensive proposal on territory and security within three months, and will have made “substantial progress” within six months. To facilitate this, an international conference will be held in Moscow “at the appropriate time.”

While the Palestinians have not formally rejected the proposal, Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh said on Sunday the PA would only return to talks if Israel froze all construction beyond the Green Line and accepted the pre-1967 lines as the basis for a two-state solution.

The Quartet framework made no reference either to the settlements or to the 1967 lines.

One government official termed the Palestinian demands “disingenuous,” since he said both the issue of the settlements and the pre- 1967 lines would be discussed in the negotiations. He also rejected the claim that the recent approval of a project with 1,100 housing units in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, beyond the Green Line, was what was going to keep the Palestinians from the talks.

“If they want excuses not to negotiate, they will always find them. No Israeli government has ever stopped building in Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem,” he said.

Government officials said Israel’s primary “concern” with the Quartet formula had to do with its isolation of security and territories from the other core issues, such as Jerusalem and refugees.

Netanyahu’s position up until now has been that the key issues – Jerusalem, borders, security and refugees – should be discussed in parallel, to facilitate trade-offs and flexibility on both sides.

For instance, according to this argument, if borders and security were dealt with in isolation of the other issues, and Israel made concessions to the Palestinians on the territorial issues, then the PA would have no reason afterward to show any flexibility on the refugee issue, or for that matter on the issue of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.

The core issues of borders and security, Jerusalem and refugees, have often been placed in pairs, with the conventional wisdom being that Israel would make concessions on borders and get concessions from the Palestinians regarding security arrangements on the one hand, and on the other hand the Palestinians would show flexibility on the refugee issue and get Israeli concessions on Jerusalem.

Government officials denied that two other elements in the Quartet statement that at first blush appeared as if they would present a problem for Israel – the goal of reaching an agreement by the end of 2012, and the call for an international conference in Moscow – were in any way problematic.

Regarding the timeline, government officials said that Netanyahu already said publicly in the late summer of 2009 that he believed an agreement could be reached within a year. And regarding the idea of an international conference in Moscow – something that the Russians have been keen on hosting since the Annapolis conference in 2007 – the official said that Israel had “no inherent problem with Russia” holding the conference, though it should be clear that the US still held the dominant Mideast peacemaking role.

2/10/11 - Israel accepts Quartet call for peace talks

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JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel accepted on Sunday a call by international mediators to resume peace talks with the Palestinians, who quickly reaffirmed their refusal to negotiate until settlement-building stops on land they seek for state.

"Israel welcomes the Quartet call for direct negotiations between the parties without preconditions," the statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.

"Israel calls on the Palestinian Authority to do the same and to enter into direct negotiations without delay."

The four mediators -- the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- responded to a Palestinian application for full membership at the U.N. on September 23 by urging both sides to resume talks within a month.

Israel and the United States oppose the unilateral bid launched by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after two decades of on-again, off-again negotiations failed to establish a Palestinian state.

Asked about Netanyahu's acceptance of the Quartet's initiative, Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Abbas, said "returning to negotiations requires Israel to commit to stopping settlement."

Abu Rdainah said Israel also must recognize the "1967 borders" lines that existed before its occupation of the West Bank in a Middle East war that year.

Citing security concerns, Netanyahu has balked at U.S. President Barack Obama's proposal to use those lines as the starting point for statehood negotiations with the Palestinians, who have yet to respond formally to the Quartet's call.

Complicating the forum's efforts and drawing a chorus of international criticism, Israel announced plans on Tuesday to build 1,100 new homes in Gilo, on annexed land near Jerusalem.

Israeli cabinet ministers who initially balked at accepting the Quartet proposal changed their minds on Sunday, at least in part as a bid to ease global anger at the latest settlement construction plan, an Israeli political source said.

Israel considers all of Jerusalem, including the eastern areas captured in 1967 as its capital, a claim that is not recognized internationally. It says Gilo will remain in its control under any future peace deal.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they hope to establish in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, an enclave controlled by Abbas's Hamas Islamist rivals since 2007.

Some 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas home to 2.5 million Palestinians. Israeli settlements, Palestinians say, will deny them a viable country. Israel cites historical and Biblical links to the land.

U.S.-brokered peace talks collapsed a year ago after Netanyahu refused to extend a partial moratorium on construction in West Bank settlements. He has given no indication he would be prepared to agree to another freeze to coax Palestinians back into talks.

The Quartet, saying it aimed for a peace agreement by the end of 2012, has urged both sides to refrain from "provocative actions."

In accepting the Quartet's call, Israel said it had "some concerns" about the proposal, such as the 2012, the Israeli source told reporters on condition of anonymity.

Israel also wants the talks to focus on core conflict issues such as refugees and Jerusalem, and not only borders and security as the Quartet has proposed, said the source.

Despite these reservations, Israeli cabinet ministers agreed to accept the proposal figuring the Palestinians "would in any case not agree to attend these negotiations," the source said.

At the U.N. on Friday, a Security Council panel on admitting new members to the U.N. met for the first time on the Palestinian membership bid.

It was the beginning of an assessment process that will pit the aid-dependent Palestinians against Israel, and the United States, which has said it would veto the bid in the Security Council if necessary.

Some diplomats have suggested the issue could stay with the membership committee for weeks or months before it is passed back to the Security Council for a vote, giving mediators more time to try to restart peace talks.

(Additional reporting by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Michael Roddy/Rosalind Russell)

23/9/11 - Palestinians submit UN statehood bid

By AMY TEIBEL and MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH  Associated Press

AP Photo/David Karp US Video Advertisement Multimedia Assault on Gaza: Mapping the attacks Gaza assault takes its toll on children A closer look at Hamas Latest News Palestinians take to streets to cheer on UN bid FACT CHECK: Abbas presents disputed narrative Latest developments in Arab world's unrest Israel's Labor Party picks ex-journalist as leader TV: Former journalist to lead Israel's Labor Party PHOTO GALLERY Conflict in the Middle East Buy AP Photo Reprints UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The Palestinian leader took his people's quest for independence to the heart of world diplomacy on Friday, hoping to galvanize their flagging statehood campaign by seeking U.N. recognition of Palestine and sidestepping negotiations that have foundered for nearly two decades under the weight of inflexibility, violence and failure of will. The bid to recognize a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem - submitted against the will of a U.S. administration that had pressured President Mahmoud Abbas to drop it - laid bare the deep sense of exasperation the Palestinians feel after 44 years of Israeli occupation. International reservations about the move have had the effect of reenergizing international efforts to seek a negotiated settlement. After Abbas submitted his formal application, international mediators called on Israelis and Palestinians to return to long-stalled negotiations and reach an agreement no later than next year. The "Quartet" - the U.S., European Union, U.N. and Russia - urged both parties to draw up an agenda for peace talks within a month and produce comprehensive proposals on territory and security within three months. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the proposal "represents the firm conviction of the international community that a just and lasting peace can only come through negotiations between the parties." But similar plans have failed to produce a peace agreement in the past, and it was how the two sides could bridge their huge differences and resume talks. The Quartet statement was radically different from what diplomats had been hoping to draft since it became clear that Abbas would not back down. U.S. and European officials had been trying to craft a statement that would itself outline parameters of the negotiations, including a reference to borders being based on the 1967 lines and affirm Israel's identity as a Jewish state. Instead, the Quartet focused on proposing deadlines for steps the two sides should take. World sympathy for the Palestinian cause was evident from the thunderous applause that greeted Abbas as he mounted the dais in the General Assembly hall to deliver a speech that laid out his grievances against the Israeli occupation and why he felt compelled to take his appeal directly to the United Nations. In a scathing denunciation of Israel's settlement policy, Abbas declared that negotiations with Israel "will be meaningless" as long as it continues building on lands the Palestinians claim for that state. Invoking what would be a nightmare for Israel, he went so far as to warn that his government could collapse if the construction persists. "This policy is responsible for the continued failure of the successive international attempts to salvage the peace process," said Abbas, who has refused to negotiate until the construction stops. "This settlement policy threatens to also undermine the structure of the Palestinian National Authority and even end its existence." The speech papered over any Palestinian culpability for the negotiations stalemate, deadly violence against Israel, the internal rift that has produced dueling governments in the West Bank and Gaza, and ignored Jewish links to the Holy Land. Some members of the Israeli delegation, including Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, walked out of the hall as Abbas approached the podium. Abbas declared himself willing to immediately return to the bargaining table, but with longstanding conditions attached: Israel must first stop building on lands the Plaesitnians claim for their future state and agree to negotiate borders based on lines it held before capturing the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in 1967. Israel rejects those conditions and has defied international pressure to freeze settlement construction. And it has staked out bargaining positions that are extremely distant from anything the Palestinians would accept. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing the General Assembly shortly after Abbas, said his country was "willing to make painful compromises" in its quest for peace. But while Palestinians "should live in a free state of their own," he said, "they should be "ready for compromise" and "start taking Israel's security concerns seriously." Netanyahu opposes negotiations based on 1967 lines, saying a return to those frontiers would expose Israel's heartland to rocket fire from the West Bank. He argued that rocket fire on Israel from evacuated territory in south Lebanon and Gaza showed that territorial compromise would not automatically resolve the conflict. Talks for all intents and purposes broke down nearly three years ago after Israel went to war in Gaza and prepared to hold national elections that propelled Netanyahu to power for a second time. A last round, backed by the U.S., was launched a year ago, with the ambitious aim of producing a framework accord for a peace deal. But it broke down just three weeks later after an Israeli settlement construction slowdown expired. The statehood bid would not deliver any immediate changes on the ground: Israel would remain an occupying force in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and continue to restrict access to Gaza, ruled by Palestinian Hamas militants. Even so, thousands of jubilant, flag-waving Palestinians, watching on outdoor screens across the West Bank, cheered on their president as he submitted his historic request for a U.N. nod. In Nablus, the crowd roared ecstatically when Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, told the General Assembly that he had submitted the request for full U.N. membership. "We are here celebrating because Abu Mazen is making us a state. We want to have our own state, like any other country," said Reem al-Masri. The 30-year-old schoolteacher lost a brother and two cousins in fighting with Israel during the second Palestinian uprising against occupation a decade ago. Abbas, who never enjoyed the popular adulation accorded his predecessor, the iconic Yasser Arafat, has seen his popularity take off over his U.N. move, allowing him to gain ground, at least for the time being, against his Islamic militant Hamas rivals. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon referred the statehood request to the Security Council, where U.S. opposition is expected to shoot it down. The U.S. and Israel have also been pressuring Council members to either vote against the plan or abstain when it comes up for a vote. The vote would require the support of nine of the Council's 15 members to pass, but even if the Palestinians could line up that backing, a U.S. veto is assured. The Security Council will meet on Monday to examine the Palestinian membership request. The Palestinians have said that in the absence of a positive outcome in the Council, they will turn to the General Assembly, which would be expected to approve a lesser status upgrade from permanent observer to nonmember observer state. While more modest, this option would be valuable to the Palestinians because of the implicit recognition that negotiations would be based on lines Israel held before capturing the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza in 1967. It would also give the Palestinians access to international judicial bodies such as the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, which Israel fears would target them unfairly. Hanging heavy in the air was the threat of renewed violence over frustrated Palestinian aspirations, in spite of Abbas' vow - perceived by Israeli security officials as genuine - to prevent Palestinian violence. The death on Friday of 35-year-old Issam Badram, in gunfire that erupted after rampaging Jewish settlers destroyed trees in a Palestinian grove, was the type of incident that both Palestinians and Israelis had feared would spark widespread violence. It was not clear how serious Abbas was about his very public threat to dissolve his limited self-rule government, born of the landmark accords Israel and the Palestinians signed in the 1990s. Dissolution would put 150,000 Palestinians out of work and cause utter chaos. Israel, which is skeptical of such talk, would be saddled with the welfare and policing of 2.5 million unwanted Palestinian subjects.