In retaliation, its Housing Minister wants Israel to “nullify the Oslo Accords, which have brought nothing but terrorism and casualties"
Secretary of State John Kerry is being blamed by all sides for the failure of the ‘peace’ talks. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said that Kerry's motives were "messianic" and "obsessive." Washington Post columnist Jackson Diehl said that Kerry was "delusional" and "detached from reality." The Palestinians judge Kerry as irrelevant because he is not capable of pressuring Israel to get the results they want.
DEMANDS, THREATS, SANCTIONS AS PEACE TALKS CRUMBLE
Israel says talks will not start again unless PA leader Mahmoud Abbas abandons pursuit of Palestinian state in U.N.
Israel Hayom
April 4, 2014
It now appears certain: The talks between Israel and the Palestinians have collapsed, and officials in Israel have said they will not start again unless Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas abandons his plan to pursue recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations.
Israel told the Palestinians on Thursday that submitting the request with the U.N. was a violation of previous understandings, and therefore it would not meet its commitment to implement the fourth phase of the Palestinian prisoner release. The Palestinians, for their part, issued their own demands for the renewal of talks, which have little to no chance of being accepted by Israel.
Following the failure to secure an extension for negotiations and the nullification of the prisoner release deal -- which would have included the freeing of jailed Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard -- details also emerged from U.S. envoy Martin Indyk's failed mediation efforts in Jerusalem late Wednesday night. The nine-hour meeting, attended by chief Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, Tzipi Livni and Saeb Erekat, spilled into the early hours of Thursday morning. At the meeting's conclusion, the sides announced that "there is nothing left to discuss," according to sources familiar with the details.
The atmosphere during the meeting was extremely difficult, with the sides describing it as a "diplomatic battlefield." Erekat emphasized he was attending as the representative of the "state of Palestine," demanding of Israel that it recognize the 1967 borders and east Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, or there was no point in continuing the meeting.
Livni said that as a consequence of the unilateral Palestinian turn to the U.N., Israel would not go ahead with the fourth stage of the prisoner release, in which 26 terrorists imprisoned in Israel were to be freed.
"As the agreements on the release of prisoners were subject to upholding the Palestinian commitment not to go to the U.N., new conditions have been created, and Israel will not be able to free the prisoners," Livni told the Palestinians, according to the official briefed on the talks.
The official further quoted Livni as saying: "The sides should now review how it is possible to make progress in the negotiations." She urged the Palestinians to withdraw from the new conventions they had signed.
A Palestinian representative present at the meeting responded to Livni, saying, "You violated the agreements by not releasing the prisoners in the fourth phase. The Palestinians will join the International Criminal Court in The Hague and will begin to legally pursue Israeli leaders and military personnel who will be accused of war crimes against the Palestinians."
Livni, in turn, threatened that Israel, too, had the means with which to counter a turn to the U.N.
According to Erekat, it was only through the efforts of Indyk and his team that the sides were able to hold a pointed discussion. This, however, ultimately proved fruitless, which Indyk relayed to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
A frustrated Kerry on Thursday exhorted leaders on both sides to "lead," and to do so now to prevent the negotiations from collapsing.
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has thus far remained silent on the breakdown of talks, Deputy Prime Minister Zeev Elkin (Likud) said the meeting between Livni and Erekat was a mistake in and of itself.
"Livni ran to the meeting, so it's not surprising this was the way in which the Palestinians behave," he said. "There are a number of pressure levers that can be employed. I, for example, propose canceling the transfer of Palestinian tax funds and use them to pay off their debts to the Israel Electric Corporation."
Israel, meanwhile, decided on a series of sanctions against the PA. Among the measures, it was decided to freeze the transmission frequencies for the Palestinian cellular company Wataniya and halt its introduction of 3G data.
The Palestinians condemned the Israeli announcement.
"Israel didn't fulfill the agreement sponsored by the U.S. concerning the release ... of prisoners in return for the Palestinian Authority not going to the U.N," said Issa Qaraqe, the minister for prisoner affairs.
At the same time, Palestinian officials say they will not formally break off the negotiations before April 29, the U.S. target date for a framework agreement, because they do not want to be blamed for derailing Kerry's mission.
"Our response must be to join all the international institutions until we reach the International Criminal Court," Qaraqe told Reuters.
Signing the conventions was "the correct response to the Israeli game of not releasing the fourth group of prisoners on time. ... Israel is the one who began this and took the unilateral decision. Today [Thursday], it announced its decision formally," Qaraqe said.
Israeli officials in Jerusalem said there was still a small chance that an agreement might be reached to extend the talks. They said the next 72 hours would be critical.
The Palestinian, meanwhile, submitted new conditions for renewing the talks, including a written commitment from Netanyahu, backed by American guarantees, that Israel recognize a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital.
Deputy Minister Ophir Akunis (Likud) responded: "Abbas' delusional conditions deserve serious inspection, because it appears he has lost touch with reality."
Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett (Habayit Hayehudi) said, "You want a commitment? Here you go: East Jerusalem will never be your capital.
"If [Abbas] wants to go to the U.N., I will buy him the ticket and there he will face a personal lawsuit for war crimes for daily supporting the killers of women and children," Bennett told Channel 2 News.
Bennett's fellow party member, Housing Minister Uri Ariel, said, "The Palestinians' turn to the U.N. is a breaking of all the rules of the game and of all the agreements, and we need to respond in kind and act to nullify the Oslo Accords, which have brought nothing but terrorism and casualties."
1 comment:
It is very hard to make a reasonable deal with someone who wants you dead. The US in general and Barry Obama and John Kerry (who served in Vietnam) in particular don't seem to be aware of that, or maybe they are and don't care.
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