9 feb 2014
British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will both visit the region late February to push along peace talks, al-Quds Newspaper reported Sunday. Cameron will head to Ramallah to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 19 February in Bethlehem, while Merkel will arrive after A week to follow up the peace process.
Western Diplomatic sources said last month that some European officials will make successive visits to the region to support John Kerry’s efforts, aiming to reach a framework agreement between the Israeli and Palestinian sides.
According to the sources, the officials intended to use thecarrot and stick policy” with the two sides. They will threaten Israel of increasing the scope of European boycott and also will reduce financial aids to the Palestinian Authority.
EU will grant Palestine and Israel many privileges that are similar to those of the Member States with minor exceptions, if they reach an agreement based on Kerry’s efforts.
In recent months, European B.D.S(Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), over Israeli colonial settlements expansion, increased after European companies and investment funds cancelled their investments with Israeli companies involved in Israeli settlement.
Angry reactions sparked in Israel when the European Union banned cooperation with any Israeli government or private entities, involved in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Western Diplomatic sources said last month that some European officials will make successive visits to the region to support John Kerry’s efforts, aiming to reach a framework agreement between the Israeli and Palestinian sides.
According to the sources, the officials intended to use thecarrot and stick policy” with the two sides. They will threaten Israel of increasing the scope of European boycott and also will reduce financial aids to the Palestinian Authority.
EU will grant Palestine and Israel many privileges that are similar to those of the Member States with minor exceptions, if they reach an agreement based on Kerry’s efforts.
In recent months, European B.D.S(Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), over Israeli colonial settlements expansion, increased after European companies and investment funds cancelled their investments with Israeli companies involved in Israeli settlement.
Angry reactions sparked in Israel when the European Union banned cooperation with any Israeli government or private entities, involved in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Israel has rejected a proposal by the Palestinian Authority to place a NATO force in the Jordan Valley. The Washington Post on Saturday quoted US Secretary of State John Kerry as saying that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has made it clear that he doesn’t want NATO” troops in the area as part of a final status agreement between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
Kerry, however, said the possibility of a third-party force is a matter for the parties to consider.
Meanwhile, an Israeli official has also confirmed Netanyahu’s objection.
Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas has proposed that the NATO force stay in a future Palestinian state to ensure security.
The US secretary of state is also planning to unveil a framework document as part of the US-brokered talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Since the resumption of the direct talks, Palestinians have objected to a number of issues including the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israel’s settlement expansion policy in the West Bank has created a major obstacle against the progress of the talks.
The settlements are illegal under the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.
Kerry, however, said the possibility of a third-party force is a matter for the parties to consider.
Meanwhile, an Israeli official has also confirmed Netanyahu’s objection.
Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas has proposed that the NATO force stay in a future Palestinian state to ensure security.
The US secretary of state is also planning to unveil a framework document as part of the US-brokered talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Since the resumption of the direct talks, Palestinians have objected to a number of issues including the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israel’s settlement expansion policy in the West Bank has created a major obstacle against the progress of the talks.
The settlements are illegal under the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.
8 feb 2014
Former Israeli prime minister and war crimes suspect Olmert (Israel Channel 2)
Former Israeli occupation prime minister Ehud Olmert said he has never compromised on right of the return of Palestinian refugees during negotiations with Abbas in 2008. Olmert in an interview with Israel Channel 2 on Friday evening said that he "agreed to the return of 5000 Palestinian refugees with ‘humanitarian profiles’ only, to be divided over five years.
He noted that he offered to Palestinian President Abbas to keep three major colonial settlements in the West Bank and to evacuate 80,000 settlers from the illegal ‘outposts’ and allow them to seek homes within these settlements.
The war crimes suspect confirmed he agreed to withdraw the Israeli army from the Jordan Valley should certain arrangements got approval of the Palestinian Authority, Jordan and Israel, without pronouncing the nature of such arrangements.
“A major obstacle to making peace with the Palestinians was the absence of trust between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas,” the JPost quoted Olmert.
"I am sure that Netanyahu wants to reach a peace settlement. But I think that there is a huge gap between what Netanyahu is willing to offer Abbas and what everyone agrees is required to form the basis of an agreement," he told Channel 2.
On the question of whether Abbas would recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jews, Olmert said that Abbas gave him an answer on the issue that would satisfy Israel at the end of a diplomatic process when a peace deal was reached. Olmert did not specify what Abbas's position was.
He is identified as a war crimes suspect for launching the 22-day Cast Lead offensive against Gaza in late 2008, which claimed the lives of up to 1450 Palestinians, mostly civilians.
Former Israeli occupation prime minister Ehud Olmert said he has never compromised on right of the return of Palestinian refugees during negotiations with Abbas in 2008. Olmert in an interview with Israel Channel 2 on Friday evening said that he "agreed to the return of 5000 Palestinian refugees with ‘humanitarian profiles’ only, to be divided over five years.
He noted that he offered to Palestinian President Abbas to keep three major colonial settlements in the West Bank and to evacuate 80,000 settlers from the illegal ‘outposts’ and allow them to seek homes within these settlements.
The war crimes suspect confirmed he agreed to withdraw the Israeli army from the Jordan Valley should certain arrangements got approval of the Palestinian Authority, Jordan and Israel, without pronouncing the nature of such arrangements.
“A major obstacle to making peace with the Palestinians was the absence of trust between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas,” the JPost quoted Olmert.
"I am sure that Netanyahu wants to reach a peace settlement. But I think that there is a huge gap between what Netanyahu is willing to offer Abbas and what everyone agrees is required to form the basis of an agreement," he told Channel 2.
On the question of whether Abbas would recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jews, Olmert said that Abbas gave him an answer on the issue that would satisfy Israel at the end of a diplomatic process when a peace deal was reached. Olmert did not specify what Abbas's position was.
He is identified as a war crimes suspect for launching the 22-day Cast Lead offensive against Gaza in late 2008, which claimed the lives of up to 1450 Palestinians, mostly civilians.
Preacher of the Aqsa Mosque Sheikh Ikrima Sabri called on the Muslim Nation to move swiftly to save the Palestinian cause from the US solutions that are aimed to liquidate it. In his Friday khutba (sermon), Sheikh Sabri demanded the Palestinian Authority to reconsider its positions and not to succumb to pressures.
He asked the PA not to forget that the Palestinian cause is a very sensitive issue related to a holy land that belongs to more than one billion Muslims and constitutes an important part of their faith, heritage, culture and history.
The preacher warned that the Palestinian city of Jerusalem is exposed nowadays to a US-made conspiracy known as Kerry's plan which wants to retain the settlements under Israel's control, including 29 settlement blocs and outposts located in and around the holy city.
According to this plan, he added, the Israeli occupation would stay in control of more than 50 percent of east Jerusalem and keep the western part of the city under its exclusive sovereignty.
Israel's segregation wall would serve like the boundary line between the Palestinians and Israelis, while the Old City of Jerusalem and the neighborhoods around the city would be under the supervision of an international commission whose members include the US and the Israeli occupation state, he elaborated further about Kerry's plan.
He also questioned about the fate of the Aqsa Mosque, which is exposed to daily violations by Jewish settlers and the Israeli police, if the Israeli occupation controlled everything in the holy city.
"The Aqsa Mosque is in danger, and Jerusalem is the first victim after it has become vulnerable to loss according to the plan of the US secretary of state. Enough is enough and there is no more room for silence," Sheikh Sabri underlined.
He asked the PA not to forget that the Palestinian cause is a very sensitive issue related to a holy land that belongs to more than one billion Muslims and constitutes an important part of their faith, heritage, culture and history.
The preacher warned that the Palestinian city of Jerusalem is exposed nowadays to a US-made conspiracy known as Kerry's plan which wants to retain the settlements under Israel's control, including 29 settlement blocs and outposts located in and around the holy city.
According to this plan, he added, the Israeli occupation would stay in control of more than 50 percent of east Jerusalem and keep the western part of the city under its exclusive sovereignty.
Israel's segregation wall would serve like the boundary line between the Palestinians and Israelis, while the Old City of Jerusalem and the neighborhoods around the city would be under the supervision of an international commission whose members include the US and the Israeli occupation state, he elaborated further about Kerry's plan.
He also questioned about the fate of the Aqsa Mosque, which is exposed to daily violations by Jewish settlers and the Israeli police, if the Israeli occupation controlled everything in the holy city.
"The Aqsa Mosque is in danger, and Jerusalem is the first victim after it has become vulnerable to loss according to the plan of the US secretary of state. Enough is enough and there is no more room for silence," Sheikh Sabri underlined.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed that Israeli demolition policy has increased by 43% since the talks' resumption in August 2013. ICRC has suspended provision of tents to displaced Palestinians in the Jordan Valley in protest over Israeli demolition policy.
"We're suspending the distribution of tents and shelter materials because we have seen a pattern of obstacles and confiscations since the beginning of 2013," said Jon Martin Larsen, a spokesman for the ICRC, calling for "an immediate halt to the demolitions of Palestinian homes".
The international organization also called on Israeli authorities to "facilitate immediate, full and unimpeded humanitarian access so that aid can reach people in need."
According to the data of the United Nations Coordination Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), of 286 demolitions that occurred after the beginning of the current round in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, 171 occurred in the Jordan Valley.
Accordingly, 452 people were displaced, accounting to 43 percent of displacement during the negotiations process, while 200 demolitions were carried out in 2012.
The organization's figures indicated that the total number of Palestinian structures destroyed in 2013, stood at 390, up from 279 a year earlier.
"We're suspending the distribution of tents and shelter materials because we have seen a pattern of obstacles and confiscations since the beginning of 2013," said Jon Martin Larsen, a spokesman for the ICRC, calling for "an immediate halt to the demolitions of Palestinian homes".
The international organization also called on Israeli authorities to "facilitate immediate, full and unimpeded humanitarian access so that aid can reach people in need."
According to the data of the United Nations Coordination Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), of 286 demolitions that occurred after the beginning of the current round in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, 171 occurred in the Jordan Valley.
Accordingly, 452 people were displaced, accounting to 43 percent of displacement during the negotiations process, while 200 demolitions were carried out in 2012.
The organization's figures indicated that the total number of Palestinian structures destroyed in 2013, stood at 390, up from 279 a year earlier.
7 feb 2014
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman has proclaimed U.S Secretary of State John Kerry a true friend of Israel regarding the ongoing peace talks.
"Kerry is a true friend of Israel, he leads the process correctly and has the right to think differently from that of belligerent Naftali Bennett," Lieberman stated.
His statement has come after a wave of Israel criticism, targeting U.S diplomacy in the region.
Especially the Knesset Minister of Industry Naftali Bennet, has voiced his scepticism regarding the proposals of Kerry.
Lieberman stated that he supports Kerry's efforts, but that he is not willing to “pay any price” for reaching a conclusion to the negotiations.
He also said that he believed that land as well as population swaps, should be part of the peace deal.
This latest statement goes to show that as of yet, there is a huge divide amongst the Israeli politicians within the Knesset.
Furthermore, if no agreement is reached, Israel has been threatened with economic sanctions that could end up costing more than 20 billion shekels.
"Kerry is a true friend of Israel, he leads the process correctly and has the right to think differently from that of belligerent Naftali Bennett," Lieberman stated.
His statement has come after a wave of Israel criticism, targeting U.S diplomacy in the region.
Especially the Knesset Minister of Industry Naftali Bennet, has voiced his scepticism regarding the proposals of Kerry.
Lieberman stated that he supports Kerry's efforts, but that he is not willing to “pay any price” for reaching a conclusion to the negotiations.
He also said that he believed that land as well as population swaps, should be part of the peace deal.
This latest statement goes to show that as of yet, there is a huge divide amongst the Israeli politicians within the Knesset.
Furthermore, if no agreement is reached, Israel has been threatened with economic sanctions that could end up costing more than 20 billion shekels.
PLO Executive Committee member and head of the PLO Department of Culture and Information, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, Thursday met with a visiting International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation at the PLO Headquarters in Ramallah.
Those IMF representatives in attendance included Juha Kahkonen, Deputy Director, Middle East and Central Asia Department, Christoph Duenwald, Deputy Division Chief, and Udo Kok, Resident Representative for the West Bank and Gaza.
In the meeting, both parties discussed the latest Palestinian political developments, the ongoing negotiations, Israeli illegal measures and policies on the ground, the status of Palestinian reconciliation efforts, nation-building and statehood, and issues of mutual cooperation.
Ashrawi stressed, "Israel's government is evading its obligations and commitments as outlined in signed agreements, terms of reference and international law by willfully and flagrantly violating their provisions and requirements."
"Palestinian institution and nation-building is being thwarted by the obstacles placed by the occupation, including the continued construction of illegal settlements and outposts in and around Jerusalem, apartheid walls, checkpoints, the displacement of Palestinians, home demolitions, and the isolation of Jerusalem from its Palestinians environs.
"We must act immediately to save the two-state solution. A clear political will by the international community is needed to end the military occupation before it is too late," concluded Ashrawi.
Those IMF representatives in attendance included Juha Kahkonen, Deputy Director, Middle East and Central Asia Department, Christoph Duenwald, Deputy Division Chief, and Udo Kok, Resident Representative for the West Bank and Gaza.
In the meeting, both parties discussed the latest Palestinian political developments, the ongoing negotiations, Israeli illegal measures and policies on the ground, the status of Palestinian reconciliation efforts, nation-building and statehood, and issues of mutual cooperation.
Ashrawi stressed, "Israel's government is evading its obligations and commitments as outlined in signed agreements, terms of reference and international law by willfully and flagrantly violating their provisions and requirements."
"Palestinian institution and nation-building is being thwarted by the obstacles placed by the occupation, including the continued construction of illegal settlements and outposts in and around Jerusalem, apartheid walls, checkpoints, the displacement of Palestinians, home demolitions, and the isolation of Jerusalem from its Palestinians environs.
"We must act immediately to save the two-state solution. A clear political will by the international community is needed to end the military occupation before it is too late," concluded Ashrawi.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu draw the lines for a final agreement with the Palestinian side and presented a proposal and a vision of a map for the future State of Palestine.
According to WALLA news site in Hebrew, Netanyahu wants to keep 10% of the West Bank land under Israeli sovereignty and control, adding that Netanyahu is ready to give up 90% of the territories occupied in 1967 .
According to Israeli news source, Netanyahu has faced rejection from Knesset members from the right-wing parties and his Likud Party but he stressed that the annex of 10% from the West Bank under the Israeli sovereignty will be an important victory because of the importance of land in this ratio.
The 10 % that netanyahu is talking about includes: Gush Etzion, Efrat, Ma'aleh Adumim and Givat Ze'ev and parts of Hebron city on which Israeli settlements of Kiryat Arba, and Ariel were built. In addition to the settlements that were constructed along the Green Line, and the old settlements of Karni Shomron, Ma'aleh Shomron and Kedumim.
The Israeli source said that Netanyahu is ready to give Palestinians any compensation to agree on the Israeli offer but the Palestinians refused it.
A source on the American side said that the two sides have not yet talked about percentages of the land exchange, but the outposts Israel is willing to keep have a percentage of 10-11% of the West Bank land, adding that the image is not clear yet.
The source added, "it is clear" that Israel is "willing in principle to give up" control of 90% of the West Bank.
As part of a compensation- according to WALLA- Israel should be provided with a land in the Gaza Strip surrounding area, in addition to creating a "safe road" linking the West Bank and Gaza; an idea which was complicated by the security situation in the Strip, that is controlled by the Hamas.
According to WALLA news site in Hebrew, Netanyahu wants to keep 10% of the West Bank land under Israeli sovereignty and control, adding that Netanyahu is ready to give up 90% of the territories occupied in 1967 .
According to Israeli news source, Netanyahu has faced rejection from Knesset members from the right-wing parties and his Likud Party but he stressed that the annex of 10% from the West Bank under the Israeli sovereignty will be an important victory because of the importance of land in this ratio.
The 10 % that netanyahu is talking about includes: Gush Etzion, Efrat, Ma'aleh Adumim and Givat Ze'ev and parts of Hebron city on which Israeli settlements of Kiryat Arba, and Ariel were built. In addition to the settlements that were constructed along the Green Line, and the old settlements of Karni Shomron, Ma'aleh Shomron and Kedumim.
The Israeli source said that Netanyahu is ready to give Palestinians any compensation to agree on the Israeli offer but the Palestinians refused it.
A source on the American side said that the two sides have not yet talked about percentages of the land exchange, but the outposts Israel is willing to keep have a percentage of 10-11% of the West Bank land, adding that the image is not clear yet.
The source added, "it is clear" that Israel is "willing in principle to give up" control of 90% of the West Bank.
As part of a compensation- according to WALLA- Israel should be provided with a land in the Gaza Strip surrounding area, in addition to creating a "safe road" linking the West Bank and Gaza; an idea which was complicated by the security situation in the Strip, that is controlled by the Hamas.
A report has been released showing that Israel stands to lose a substantial amount of its income, if the ongoing peace talks fail.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry has acknowledged its inability to face the growing boycott campaign even though it has managed to put pressure on a few European governments Israeli Newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reports.
“It would be useless to launch an anti-boycott campaign to promote settlement products,” said an Israeli ministry official. Even in unfriendly countries, the boycott has not been made law yet; however it is likely that some politicians will push this “due to the sweeping wave of hostility” towards Israel.
The Israeli Finance Minister has stated that Israel currently stands to lose 23,5 billion shekels in annual revenue if the talks fail. Of these, 20 billion are in export loses and 3.5 is loses from the loss of the European partnership.
Currently, the New York Assembly is hoping to pass a bill which would cut the funding to academic institutions which are boycotting Israel, as a response to ASA (American Studies Association), which are doing just that.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry has acknowledged its inability to face the growing boycott campaign even though it has managed to put pressure on a few European governments Israeli Newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reports.
“It would be useless to launch an anti-boycott campaign to promote settlement products,” said an Israeli ministry official. Even in unfriendly countries, the boycott has not been made law yet; however it is likely that some politicians will push this “due to the sweeping wave of hostility” towards Israel.
The Israeli Finance Minister has stated that Israel currently stands to lose 23,5 billion shekels in annual revenue if the talks fail. Of these, 20 billion are in export loses and 3.5 is loses from the loss of the European partnership.
Currently, the New York Assembly is hoping to pass a bill which would cut the funding to academic institutions which are boycotting Israel, as a response to ASA (American Studies Association), which are doing just that.
6 feb 2014
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu draw the lines for a final agreement with the Palestinian side and presented a proposal and a vision of a map for the future State of Palestine.
According to WALLA news site in Hebrew, Netanyahu wants to keep 10% of the West Bank land under Israeli sovereignty and control, adding that Netanyahu is ready to give up 90% of the territories occupied in 1967 .
According to Israeli news source, Netanyahu has faced rejection from Knesset members from the right-wing parties and his Likud Party but he stressed that the annex of 10% from the West Bank under the Israeli sovereignty will be an important victory because of the importance of land in this ratio.
The 10 % that netanyahu is talking about includes: Gush Etzion, Efrat, Ma'aleh Adumim and Givat Ze'ev and parts of Hebron city on which Israeli settlements of Kiryat Arba, and Ariel were built. In addition to the settlements that were constructed along the Green Line, and the old settlements of Karni Shomron, Ma'aleh Shomron and Kedumim.
The Israeli source said that Netanyahu is ready to give Palestinians any compensation to agree on the Israeli offer but the Palestinians refused it.
A source on the American side said that the two sides have not yet talked about percentages of the land exchange, but the outposts Israel is willing to keep have a percentage of 10-11% of the West Bank land, adding that the image is not clear yet.
The source added, "it is clear" that Israel is "willing in principle to give up" control of 90% of the West Bank.
As part of a compensation- according to WALLA- Israel should be provided with a land in the Gaza Strip surrounding area, in addition to creating a "safe road" linking the West Bank and Gaza; an idea which was complicated by the security situation in the Strip, that is controlled by the Hamas.
According to WALLA news site in Hebrew, Netanyahu wants to keep 10% of the West Bank land under Israeli sovereignty and control, adding that Netanyahu is ready to give up 90% of the territories occupied in 1967 .
According to Israeli news source, Netanyahu has faced rejection from Knesset members from the right-wing parties and his Likud Party but he stressed that the annex of 10% from the West Bank under the Israeli sovereignty will be an important victory because of the importance of land in this ratio.
The 10 % that netanyahu is talking about includes: Gush Etzion, Efrat, Ma'aleh Adumim and Givat Ze'ev and parts of Hebron city on which Israeli settlements of Kiryat Arba, and Ariel were built. In addition to the settlements that were constructed along the Green Line, and the old settlements of Karni Shomron, Ma'aleh Shomron and Kedumim.
The Israeli source said that Netanyahu is ready to give Palestinians any compensation to agree on the Israeli offer but the Palestinians refused it.
A source on the American side said that the two sides have not yet talked about percentages of the land exchange, but the outposts Israel is willing to keep have a percentage of 10-11% of the West Bank land, adding that the image is not clear yet.
The source added, "it is clear" that Israel is "willing in principle to give up" control of 90% of the West Bank.
As part of a compensation- according to WALLA- Israel should be provided with a land in the Gaza Strip surrounding area, in addition to creating a "safe road" linking the West Bank and Gaza; an idea which was complicated by the security situation in the Strip, that is controlled by the Hamas.
Member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Jamil Mizher called for a mass rally to force the Palestinian leadership to withdraw from the negotiations, and thwart Kerry's plan that aims to liquidate the Palestinian cause. Mizher said: "There is no need for continuing these futile and harmful negotiations that have been exploited by the occupation to continue building settlements, Judaizing Jerusalem, and imposing facts on the ground, in light of American attempts to implement a plan that cancels the right of return and serves the occupation state."
He renewed his call on the Palestinian leadership to immediately withdraw from these negotiations and to give priority to ending the division and the formulation of a unified national strategy to confront the occupation.
Mizher also refused to swap the Palestinian rights and constants with the release of a limited number of prisoners who have been sacrificing and struggling for independence, return of refugees, and statehood.
He renewed his call on the Palestinian leadership to immediately withdraw from these negotiations and to give priority to ending the division and the formulation of a unified national strategy to confront the occupation.
Mizher also refused to swap the Palestinian rights and constants with the release of a limited number of prisoners who have been sacrificing and struggling for independence, return of refugees, and statehood.
Former Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan on Thursday denied media reports that he had met with an Israeli official as part of discussions to be a potential replacement for President Mahmoud Abbas.
Earlier, Israeli daily Maariv reported that Benjamin Netanyahu had sent his political adviser Yitzhak Molcho to Dubai to meet with the former Fatah official.
The move was described as an attempt to build good relations with Dahlan as a potential political partner if Israel and the PLO fail to reach an agreement in ongoing peace talks.
Israeli officials reportedly believe that Dahlan's popularity in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank make him a suitable replacement for Abbas, Maariv said.
Dahlan told Ma'an that he has not met with Yitzhak Molcho for personal or political reasons since the late 1990s, when both officials were involved in negotiations.
"If the Palestinian people's interest requires that I meet with any Israeli personality at a lecture, a conference or any other occasion, I do not do that secretly behind the scenes as some Palestinians did while Israel besieged our late leader Yasser Arafat," he said.
Dahlan called the Maariv report pure "fiction" and said that people like him would never accept what the Israelis are proposing in peace talks.
A former security chief in the Gaza Strip under Fatah, Dahlan fled the West Bank after his ouster from the party in 2011, after which security forces raided his home.
Fatah's Central Committee said at the time that he was expelled for harming Palestinian national interests and coercing outside parties to commit crimes over a number of years.
The committee said that Dahlan had led a racket which stole money from the Palestinian Investment Fund and controlled crossings and the movement of goods and people.
Leaked reports also said that the former Fatah strongman in Gaza was building a private armed militia in the West Bank. Dahlan denied the allegations.
Earlier, Israeli daily Maariv reported that Benjamin Netanyahu had sent his political adviser Yitzhak Molcho to Dubai to meet with the former Fatah official.
The move was described as an attempt to build good relations with Dahlan as a potential political partner if Israel and the PLO fail to reach an agreement in ongoing peace talks.
Israeli officials reportedly believe that Dahlan's popularity in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank make him a suitable replacement for Abbas, Maariv said.
Dahlan told Ma'an that he has not met with Yitzhak Molcho for personal or political reasons since the late 1990s, when both officials were involved in negotiations.
"If the Palestinian people's interest requires that I meet with any Israeli personality at a lecture, a conference or any other occasion, I do not do that secretly behind the scenes as some Palestinians did while Israel besieged our late leader Yasser Arafat," he said.
Dahlan called the Maariv report pure "fiction" and said that people like him would never accept what the Israelis are proposing in peace talks.
A former security chief in the Gaza Strip under Fatah, Dahlan fled the West Bank after his ouster from the party in 2011, after which security forces raided his home.
Fatah's Central Committee said at the time that he was expelled for harming Palestinian national interests and coercing outside parties to commit crimes over a number of years.
The committee said that Dahlan had led a racket which stole money from the Palestinian Investment Fund and controlled crossings and the movement of goods and people.
Leaked reports also said that the former Fatah strongman in Gaza was building a private armed militia in the West Bank. Dahlan denied the allegations.
By Nicola Nasser
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stands now at a crossroads of his people's national struggle for liberation and independence as well as of his political life career, cornered between the rock of his own rejecting constituency and the hard place of his Israeli occupying power and the US sponsors of their bilateral negotiations, which were resumed last July 29, despite his minesweeping concessions and backtracking "on all his redlines."
Unmercifully pressured by both Israeli negotiators and American mediators, the elusive cause of peace stands about to loose in Abbas a brave Palestinian man of peace-making of an historical stature whose demise would squander what could be the last opportunity for the so-called two-state solution.
To continue pressuring Abbas into yielding more concessions without any reciprocal rewards is turning a brave man into an adventurer committing historical and strategic mistakes in the eyes of his people, a trend that if continued would in no time disqualify him of a personal weight that is a prerequisite to make his people accept his "painful" concessions.
The emerging, heavily "pro-Israel" US-proposed framework agreement "appears to ask the Palestinians to accept peace terms that are worse than the Israeli ones they already rejected ... that it would all but compel the Palestinians to reject it," Larry Derfner wrote in The National Interest on this February 3.
Abbas "rejects all transitional, partial and temporary solutions," his spokesman Nabil Abu Rdaineh said on last January 5, but that's exactly what the leaks of the blueprint of the "framework agreement" reveal.
Reportedly, the international Quartet on the Middle East, comprising the US, EU, UN and Russia, meeting on the sidelines of the Munich security conference last week, supported US Secretary of State John Kerry's efforts to commit Palestinian and Israeli negotiators to his proposed "framework agreement."
Europe is also tightening the rope around Abbas' neck. If the current US-backed framework agreement talks with Israel fail, Europe will not automatically continue to support the Palestinian Authority, Israel's Walla website reported on last January 29.
However, The US envoy Martyn Indyk said on last January 31 that Kerry will be proposing the "framework agreement" to the Palestinian and Israeli negotiators "within a few weeks," but the State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki on the same day "clarified" in a statement that the "contents of the framework" are not "final" because "this is an ongoing process and these decisions have not yet been made."
Historic versus Political Decisions
Israeli President Shimon Peres on last January 30, during a joint press conference with the envoy of the Middle East Quartet, Tony Blair, said that there is "an opportunity" now to make "historic decisions, not political ones" for the "two-state solution" of the Arab – Israeli conflict and that "we are facing the most crucial time since the establishment of the new Middle East in 1948," i.e. since what the Israeli historian Ilan Pappé called the "ethnic cleaning" of the Arabs of Palestine and the creation of Israel on their ancestral land.
Peres on the same occasion said that he was "convinced" that Abbas wants "seriously" to make peace with Israel, but what Peres failed to note was that "historic decisions" are made by historic leaders and that such a leader is still missing in Israel since the assassination of late former premier Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, but already available in the person of President Abbas, whom Peres had more than once confirmed as the Palestinian peace "partner," defying his country's official denial of the existence of such a partner on the Palestinian side.
Abbas' more than two – decade unwavering commitment to peace, negotiations, renunciation of violence and the two –state solution has earned him a semi-consensus rejection and opposition to his fruitless efforts among his own people. He is defying his own Fatah-led Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) constituency, let alone his Hamas-led non-PLO political rivals, who have opposed his decision to resume bilateral negotiations with Israel and are overwhelmingly rejecting the leaked components of Kerry's "framework agreement."
"Abbas is perhaps the last Palestinian leader today with some measure of faith in the diplomatic process," Elhanan Miller, wrote in The Times of Israel this February 3. Palestinian "pressure" is mounting on him even from members of his own Fatah party and "his negotiating team crumbled" when negotiator Mohammed Shtayyeh resigned in November last year. In an interview recorded especially for the conference of Tel Aviv's Institute for National Security Studies in the previous week, Abbas "indicated he may not be able to withstand the pressure much longer," Miller wrote.
"Abbas is in an unenviable position these days. As negotiations with Israel enter the final third of their nine-month time frame," the Palestinian president stands "cornered" between a Palestinian rejection "and an Israeli leadership bent on depicting him as an uncompromising extremist," according to Miller, who quoted the Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz as describing Abbas in the previous week as "the foremost purveyor of anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli venom."
Similar Israeli "political" demonization of an historic figure like Abbas led Jamie Stern-Weiner, of the New Left Project, writing in GlobalResearch online on last January 11, to expect that, "It's possible that Abbas will get a bullet in his head!" Jamie was not taking things too far in view of Kerry's warning, reported by Palestinian Authority (PA) officials, that Abbas could face the fate of his predecessor Yasser Arafat.
Israel's chief negotiator, Tzipi Livni, stated on last January 25 that Abbas' positions are "unacceptable to us" and threatened the Palestinians "to pay the price" if he sticks to them.
"This is a clear threat to Abbas in person and it must be taken seriously," the PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki told reporters soon after. "We will distribute Livni's statements to all foreign ministers and the international community. We can't remain silent towards these threats," he added.
Israeli demonization was not confined to Abbas; it hit also at Kerry as "hurtful," "unfair," "intolerable," "obsessive," "messianic" and expects Israel "to negotiate with a gun to its head." US National Security Adviser Susan Rice "tweeted" in response to convey, according to Haaretz on this February 5, that "Israeli insulters have crossed the red line of diplomatic etiquette!"
Minesweeping Concessions
Abbas' demonization was the Israeli reward for the minesweeping concessions he had already made to make the resumed negotiations a success, risking a growing semi-consensus opposition at home:
* Abbas had backtracked on his own previously proclaimed precondition for the resumption of bilateral negotiations with Israel, namely freezing the accelerating expansion of the illegal Israeli Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories, which Israel militarily occupied in 1967, at least temporarily during the resumed negotiations.
* Thereafter, according to Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu, writing in The Jewish Press on this February 3, Abbas "has essentially backtracked on all his redlines, except for" heeding Israel's insistence on recognizing it as a "Jewish state," which is a new Israeli unilaterally demanded precondition that even the Jordanian Foreign Minister, Nasser Judeh, considered "unacceptable" on this February 2 despite his country's peace treaty with Israel.
* In his interview with The New York Times on this February 2, Abbas reiterated his repeated pledge not to allow a third Intifada, or uprising: "In my life, and if I have any more life in the future, I will never return to the armed struggle," he said, thus voluntarily depriving himself from a successfully tested source of a negotiating power and a legitimate instrument of resisting foreign military occupation ordained by the international law and the UN charter.
* In the same interview he yielded to the Israeli precondition of "demilitarizing" any future state of Palestine, thus compromising the sovereignty of such a state beforehand. Ignoring the facts that Israel is a nuclear power, a state of weapons of mass destruction, the regional military superpower and the world's forth military exporter, he asked: "Do you think we have any illusion that we can have any security if the Israelis do not feel they have security?"
* Further compromising the sovereignty of any future state of Palestine, Abbas, according to the Times interview, has proposed to US Secretary Kerry that an American-led NATO force, not a UN force, patrol a future Palestinian state "indefinitely, with troops positioned throughout the territory, at all crossings, and within Jerusalem;" he seemed insensitive to the fact that his people would see such a force with such a mandate as merely the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) operating under the NATO flag and in its uniforms.
* Abbas even agreed that the IOF "could remain in the West Bank for up to five years" -- and not three as he had recently stated – provided that "Jewish settlements" are "phased out of the new Palestinian state along a similar timetable."
* Not all "Jewish settlements" however. Very well aware of international law, which prohibits the transfer of people by an occupying power like Israel from or to the occupied territories, Abbas nonetheless had early enough accepted the principle of proportional land swapping whereby the major colonial settlements, mainly within Greater Jerusalem borders, which are home to some eighty percent of more than half a million illegal Jewish settlers in the West Bank, would be annexed to Israel. This concession is tantamount to accepting the division of the West Bank between its Palestinian citizens and its illegal settlers.
* Yet, what Abbas had described as the "historic," "very difficult," "courageous" and "painful" concession Palestinians had already made dates back very much earlier, when the Palestine National Council adopted in 1988 the Declaration of Independence, which was based on the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution No. 181 (II) of 29 November 1947; then "we agreed to establish the State of Palestine on only 22% of the territory of historical Palestine - on all the Palestinian Territory occupied by Israel in 1967," he told the UNGA in September 2011.
* Accordingly, Abbas repeatedly voices his commitment to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which stipules an "agreed upon" solution of the "problem" of the 1948 Palestinian refugees. Israel is on record that the return of these refugees to their homes according to the UNGA resolution No. 194 (III) of December 11, 1948 is a non-negotiable redline, thus rendering any such "agreed upon" solution a mission impossible. Abbas concession to such a solution is in fact compromising the inalienable rights of more than half of the Palestinian population.
On September 29, 2012, Abbas "once again" repeated "our warning" to the UNGA: "The window of opportunity is narrowing and time is quickly running out. The rope of patience is shortening and hope is withering."
Out of Conviction, Not out of Options
Abbas is making concessions unacceptable to his people out of deep conviction in peace and unwavering commitment to peaceful negotiations and not because he is out of options.
One of his options was reported in an interview with The New York Times on this February 2, when Abbas said that he had been "resisting pressure" from the Palestinian street and leadership to join the United Nations agencies for which his staff "had presented 63 applications ready for his signature."
In 2012 the UNGA recognized Palestine as an observer non-member state; reapplying for the recognition of Palestine as a member state is another option postponed by Abbas to give the resumed negotiations with Israel a chance.
Reconciliation with Hamas in the Gaza Strip is a third option that Abbas has been maneuvering not to make since 2005 in order not to alienate Israel and the US away from peace talks because they condemn it as a terrorist organization.
Suspension of the security coordination with Israel is also a possible option, which his predecessor Arafat used to test now and then.
Looking for other players to join the US in co-sponsoring the peace talks with Israel is an option that Abbas made clear in his latest visit to Moscow. "We would like other parties, such as Russia, the European Union, China and UN, to play an influential role in these talks," the Voice of Russia quoted him as saying on last January 24.
Israel's DEBKAfile in an exclusive report on last January 24 considered his Moscow visit an "exit from the Kerry peace initiative," labeling it a "diplomatic Intifada" and a "defection" that caught Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu "unprepared."
Abbas' representative Jibril al-Rjoub on January 27 was in the Iranian capital Tehran for the first time in many years. "Our openness to Iran is a Palestinian interest and part of our strategy to open to the whole world," al-Rjoub said. Three days later the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi daily reported that Abbas will be invited to visit Iran soon with the aim of "rehabilitating" the bilateral ties. The Central committee of Fatah, which Abbas leads, on this February 3 said that al-Rjoub's Tehran visit "comes in line with maintaining international relations in favor of the high interests of our people and the Palestinian cause."
Opening up to erstwhile "hostile" nations like Iran and Syria is more likely a tactical maneuvering than a strategic shift by Abbas, meant to send the message that all Abbas' options are open.
However his strategic option would undeniably be to honor his previous repeated threats of resignation, to leave the Israeli Occupation Forces to fend for themselves face to face with the Palestinian people whose status quo is no more sustainable.
Speaking in Munich, Germany, Kerry on this February 1 conveyed the message bluntly: "Today's status quo, absolutely to a certainty, I promise you 100 percent, cannot be maintained," Kerry said of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "It is not sustainable." Last November, Kerry warned that Israel would face a Palestinian "third Intifada" if his sponsored talks see no breakthrough.
The loss of Abbas by resignation or by nature would for sure end Kerry's peace mission and make his warning come true.
* Nicola Nasser is a veteran Arab journalist based in Bir Zeit, West Bank of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stands now at a crossroads of his people's national struggle for liberation and independence as well as of his political life career, cornered between the rock of his own rejecting constituency and the hard place of his Israeli occupying power and the US sponsors of their bilateral negotiations, which were resumed last July 29, despite his minesweeping concessions and backtracking "on all his redlines."
Unmercifully pressured by both Israeli negotiators and American mediators, the elusive cause of peace stands about to loose in Abbas a brave Palestinian man of peace-making of an historical stature whose demise would squander what could be the last opportunity for the so-called two-state solution.
To continue pressuring Abbas into yielding more concessions without any reciprocal rewards is turning a brave man into an adventurer committing historical and strategic mistakes in the eyes of his people, a trend that if continued would in no time disqualify him of a personal weight that is a prerequisite to make his people accept his "painful" concessions.
The emerging, heavily "pro-Israel" US-proposed framework agreement "appears to ask the Palestinians to accept peace terms that are worse than the Israeli ones they already rejected ... that it would all but compel the Palestinians to reject it," Larry Derfner wrote in The National Interest on this February 3.
Abbas "rejects all transitional, partial and temporary solutions," his spokesman Nabil Abu Rdaineh said on last January 5, but that's exactly what the leaks of the blueprint of the "framework agreement" reveal.
Reportedly, the international Quartet on the Middle East, comprising the US, EU, UN and Russia, meeting on the sidelines of the Munich security conference last week, supported US Secretary of State John Kerry's efforts to commit Palestinian and Israeli negotiators to his proposed "framework agreement."
Europe is also tightening the rope around Abbas' neck. If the current US-backed framework agreement talks with Israel fail, Europe will not automatically continue to support the Palestinian Authority, Israel's Walla website reported on last January 29.
However, The US envoy Martyn Indyk said on last January 31 that Kerry will be proposing the "framework agreement" to the Palestinian and Israeli negotiators "within a few weeks," but the State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki on the same day "clarified" in a statement that the "contents of the framework" are not "final" because "this is an ongoing process and these decisions have not yet been made."
Historic versus Political Decisions
Israeli President Shimon Peres on last January 30, during a joint press conference with the envoy of the Middle East Quartet, Tony Blair, said that there is "an opportunity" now to make "historic decisions, not political ones" for the "two-state solution" of the Arab – Israeli conflict and that "we are facing the most crucial time since the establishment of the new Middle East in 1948," i.e. since what the Israeli historian Ilan Pappé called the "ethnic cleaning" of the Arabs of Palestine and the creation of Israel on their ancestral land.
Peres on the same occasion said that he was "convinced" that Abbas wants "seriously" to make peace with Israel, but what Peres failed to note was that "historic decisions" are made by historic leaders and that such a leader is still missing in Israel since the assassination of late former premier Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, but already available in the person of President Abbas, whom Peres had more than once confirmed as the Palestinian peace "partner," defying his country's official denial of the existence of such a partner on the Palestinian side.
Abbas' more than two – decade unwavering commitment to peace, negotiations, renunciation of violence and the two –state solution has earned him a semi-consensus rejection and opposition to his fruitless efforts among his own people. He is defying his own Fatah-led Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) constituency, let alone his Hamas-led non-PLO political rivals, who have opposed his decision to resume bilateral negotiations with Israel and are overwhelmingly rejecting the leaked components of Kerry's "framework agreement."
"Abbas is perhaps the last Palestinian leader today with some measure of faith in the diplomatic process," Elhanan Miller, wrote in The Times of Israel this February 3. Palestinian "pressure" is mounting on him even from members of his own Fatah party and "his negotiating team crumbled" when negotiator Mohammed Shtayyeh resigned in November last year. In an interview recorded especially for the conference of Tel Aviv's Institute for National Security Studies in the previous week, Abbas "indicated he may not be able to withstand the pressure much longer," Miller wrote.
"Abbas is in an unenviable position these days. As negotiations with Israel enter the final third of their nine-month time frame," the Palestinian president stands "cornered" between a Palestinian rejection "and an Israeli leadership bent on depicting him as an uncompromising extremist," according to Miller, who quoted the Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz as describing Abbas in the previous week as "the foremost purveyor of anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli venom."
Similar Israeli "political" demonization of an historic figure like Abbas led Jamie Stern-Weiner, of the New Left Project, writing in GlobalResearch online on last January 11, to expect that, "It's possible that Abbas will get a bullet in his head!" Jamie was not taking things too far in view of Kerry's warning, reported by Palestinian Authority (PA) officials, that Abbas could face the fate of his predecessor Yasser Arafat.
Israel's chief negotiator, Tzipi Livni, stated on last January 25 that Abbas' positions are "unacceptable to us" and threatened the Palestinians "to pay the price" if he sticks to them.
"This is a clear threat to Abbas in person and it must be taken seriously," the PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki told reporters soon after. "We will distribute Livni's statements to all foreign ministers and the international community. We can't remain silent towards these threats," he added.
Israeli demonization was not confined to Abbas; it hit also at Kerry as "hurtful," "unfair," "intolerable," "obsessive," "messianic" and expects Israel "to negotiate with a gun to its head." US National Security Adviser Susan Rice "tweeted" in response to convey, according to Haaretz on this February 5, that "Israeli insulters have crossed the red line of diplomatic etiquette!"
Minesweeping Concessions
Abbas' demonization was the Israeli reward for the minesweeping concessions he had already made to make the resumed negotiations a success, risking a growing semi-consensus opposition at home:
* Abbas had backtracked on his own previously proclaimed precondition for the resumption of bilateral negotiations with Israel, namely freezing the accelerating expansion of the illegal Israeli Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories, which Israel militarily occupied in 1967, at least temporarily during the resumed negotiations.
* Thereafter, according to Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu, writing in The Jewish Press on this February 3, Abbas "has essentially backtracked on all his redlines, except for" heeding Israel's insistence on recognizing it as a "Jewish state," which is a new Israeli unilaterally demanded precondition that even the Jordanian Foreign Minister, Nasser Judeh, considered "unacceptable" on this February 2 despite his country's peace treaty with Israel.
* In his interview with The New York Times on this February 2, Abbas reiterated his repeated pledge not to allow a third Intifada, or uprising: "In my life, and if I have any more life in the future, I will never return to the armed struggle," he said, thus voluntarily depriving himself from a successfully tested source of a negotiating power and a legitimate instrument of resisting foreign military occupation ordained by the international law and the UN charter.
* In the same interview he yielded to the Israeli precondition of "demilitarizing" any future state of Palestine, thus compromising the sovereignty of such a state beforehand. Ignoring the facts that Israel is a nuclear power, a state of weapons of mass destruction, the regional military superpower and the world's forth military exporter, he asked: "Do you think we have any illusion that we can have any security if the Israelis do not feel they have security?"
* Further compromising the sovereignty of any future state of Palestine, Abbas, according to the Times interview, has proposed to US Secretary Kerry that an American-led NATO force, not a UN force, patrol a future Palestinian state "indefinitely, with troops positioned throughout the territory, at all crossings, and within Jerusalem;" he seemed insensitive to the fact that his people would see such a force with such a mandate as merely the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) operating under the NATO flag and in its uniforms.
* Abbas even agreed that the IOF "could remain in the West Bank for up to five years" -- and not three as he had recently stated – provided that "Jewish settlements" are "phased out of the new Palestinian state along a similar timetable."
* Not all "Jewish settlements" however. Very well aware of international law, which prohibits the transfer of people by an occupying power like Israel from or to the occupied territories, Abbas nonetheless had early enough accepted the principle of proportional land swapping whereby the major colonial settlements, mainly within Greater Jerusalem borders, which are home to some eighty percent of more than half a million illegal Jewish settlers in the West Bank, would be annexed to Israel. This concession is tantamount to accepting the division of the West Bank between its Palestinian citizens and its illegal settlers.
* Yet, what Abbas had described as the "historic," "very difficult," "courageous" and "painful" concession Palestinians had already made dates back very much earlier, when the Palestine National Council adopted in 1988 the Declaration of Independence, which was based on the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution No. 181 (II) of 29 November 1947; then "we agreed to establish the State of Palestine on only 22% of the territory of historical Palestine - on all the Palestinian Territory occupied by Israel in 1967," he told the UNGA in September 2011.
* Accordingly, Abbas repeatedly voices his commitment to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which stipules an "agreed upon" solution of the "problem" of the 1948 Palestinian refugees. Israel is on record that the return of these refugees to their homes according to the UNGA resolution No. 194 (III) of December 11, 1948 is a non-negotiable redline, thus rendering any such "agreed upon" solution a mission impossible. Abbas concession to such a solution is in fact compromising the inalienable rights of more than half of the Palestinian population.
On September 29, 2012, Abbas "once again" repeated "our warning" to the UNGA: "The window of opportunity is narrowing and time is quickly running out. The rope of patience is shortening and hope is withering."
Out of Conviction, Not out of Options
Abbas is making concessions unacceptable to his people out of deep conviction in peace and unwavering commitment to peaceful negotiations and not because he is out of options.
One of his options was reported in an interview with The New York Times on this February 2, when Abbas said that he had been "resisting pressure" from the Palestinian street and leadership to join the United Nations agencies for which his staff "had presented 63 applications ready for his signature."
In 2012 the UNGA recognized Palestine as an observer non-member state; reapplying for the recognition of Palestine as a member state is another option postponed by Abbas to give the resumed negotiations with Israel a chance.
Reconciliation with Hamas in the Gaza Strip is a third option that Abbas has been maneuvering not to make since 2005 in order not to alienate Israel and the US away from peace talks because they condemn it as a terrorist organization.
Suspension of the security coordination with Israel is also a possible option, which his predecessor Arafat used to test now and then.
Looking for other players to join the US in co-sponsoring the peace talks with Israel is an option that Abbas made clear in his latest visit to Moscow. "We would like other parties, such as Russia, the European Union, China and UN, to play an influential role in these talks," the Voice of Russia quoted him as saying on last January 24.
Israel's DEBKAfile in an exclusive report on last January 24 considered his Moscow visit an "exit from the Kerry peace initiative," labeling it a "diplomatic Intifada" and a "defection" that caught Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu "unprepared."
Abbas' representative Jibril al-Rjoub on January 27 was in the Iranian capital Tehran for the first time in many years. "Our openness to Iran is a Palestinian interest and part of our strategy to open to the whole world," al-Rjoub said. Three days later the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi daily reported that Abbas will be invited to visit Iran soon with the aim of "rehabilitating" the bilateral ties. The Central committee of Fatah, which Abbas leads, on this February 3 said that al-Rjoub's Tehran visit "comes in line with maintaining international relations in favor of the high interests of our people and the Palestinian cause."
Opening up to erstwhile "hostile" nations like Iran and Syria is more likely a tactical maneuvering than a strategic shift by Abbas, meant to send the message that all Abbas' options are open.
However his strategic option would undeniably be to honor his previous repeated threats of resignation, to leave the Israeli Occupation Forces to fend for themselves face to face with the Palestinian people whose status quo is no more sustainable.
Speaking in Munich, Germany, Kerry on this February 1 conveyed the message bluntly: "Today's status quo, absolutely to a certainty, I promise you 100 percent, cannot be maintained," Kerry said of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "It is not sustainable." Last November, Kerry warned that Israel would face a Palestinian "third Intifada" if his sponsored talks see no breakthrough.
The loss of Abbas by resignation or by nature would for sure end Kerry's peace mission and make his warning come true.
* Nicola Nasser is a veteran Arab journalist based in Bir Zeit, West Bank of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
Israeli Minister Uri Ariel stated Monday that the peace talks between Israel and Palestine are unlikely to go anywhere because of both sides' terms.
He speaks on behalf of the Israeli government coalition, including individuals such as Isreali Ministers Tzipi Livni and Yair Lapid, and states that "everyone in the coalition agrees that the major settlement blocs will remain intact, the Jordan Valley will remain part of Israel, there cannot be a right of return and Jerusalem will remain united.
The other side wants the right of return, won't recognize Israel as Jewish and doesn't want any Jews on their land. If you ask me if we can reach an agreement on those terms, I say no," The Jeruslame Post reports. Ariel went on to state that there is no way for a breakthrough, claiming that this is because US Secretary of State John Kerry has no room to maneuver.
There has been some debate and discussion about Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that certain parties in the Israeli coalition are to be removed and replaced with others, in an attempt to make the whole coalition more favourable to the peace agreement, but Ariel states that this not realisic politically, and hopes that the PM can calm things down.
He speaks on behalf of the Israeli government coalition, including individuals such as Isreali Ministers Tzipi Livni and Yair Lapid, and states that "everyone in the coalition agrees that the major settlement blocs will remain intact, the Jordan Valley will remain part of Israel, there cannot be a right of return and Jerusalem will remain united.
The other side wants the right of return, won't recognize Israel as Jewish and doesn't want any Jews on their land. If you ask me if we can reach an agreement on those terms, I say no," The Jeruslame Post reports. Ariel went on to state that there is no way for a breakthrough, claiming that this is because US Secretary of State John Kerry has no room to maneuver.
There has been some debate and discussion about Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that certain parties in the Israeli coalition are to be removed and replaced with others, in an attempt to make the whole coalition more favourable to the peace agreement, but Ariel states that this not realisic politically, and hopes that the PM can calm things down.
PLO Executive Committee member, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi Wednesday condemned Israel's latest approval of the construction of 349 settlement units in Occupied Jerusalem and the demolition of Palestinian homes in Beit Hanina and Sur Bahir.
"It is evident that Israel is isolating Jerusalem from its Palestinian environment by means of apartheid walls, checkpoints and rings of settlements. The Palestinian citizens of Jerusalem continue to suffer at the expense of Israel's policies of ethnic cleansing which include home demolitions, annexation of Palestinian land, and the revocation of Jerusalem IDs," said Ashrawi.
Ashrawi added, "Israel is engaging in the deliberate provocation of the Palestinians to drive them to leave the negotiations in protest of Israeli violations, and therefore be blamed for the destruction of the peace process."
"Clearly, it is Israel and its violations of international and humanitarian law that constitute an Israeli attempt to ensure the failure of negotiations and the destruction of the two-state solution. Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is deliberately sending a strong message to the United States, Europe and the rest of the world that it has no intention of adhering to international law and the will of the international community," she elaborated.
"Israel is not only capable of sabotaging the talks, but it is flagrantly destroying the chances of peace and stability throughout the region," concluded Ashrawi.
"It is evident that Israel is isolating Jerusalem from its Palestinian environment by means of apartheid walls, checkpoints and rings of settlements. The Palestinian citizens of Jerusalem continue to suffer at the expense of Israel's policies of ethnic cleansing which include home demolitions, annexation of Palestinian land, and the revocation of Jerusalem IDs," said Ashrawi.
Ashrawi added, "Israel is engaging in the deliberate provocation of the Palestinians to drive them to leave the negotiations in protest of Israeli violations, and therefore be blamed for the destruction of the peace process."
"Clearly, it is Israel and its violations of international and humanitarian law that constitute an Israeli attempt to ensure the failure of negotiations and the destruction of the two-state solution. Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is deliberately sending a strong message to the United States, Europe and the rest of the world that it has no intention of adhering to international law and the will of the international community," she elaborated.
"Israel is not only capable of sabotaging the talks, but it is flagrantly destroying the chances of peace and stability throughout the region," concluded Ashrawi.
MK Miri Regev, the member of “Likud Beitinu” party, suggested a law provided that Israeli colonial settlements in the West Bank to be put under the Israeli occupation control as a step to thwart peace negotiations.
The ministerial committee is scheduled to look into the proposal next Sunday, according to Israeli media.
Israeli newspapers reported that Regev introduced the suggestion to prevent the evacuation of Israeli settlements.
Regve introduced another proposal previously to annex Jordan Valley settlements, but Justice Minister Tzipi Livni blocked the bill and banned voting for it.
Newspapers said, Benyamin Netanyahu will prevent stating this law in the ministerial committee.
The ministerial committee is scheduled to look into the proposal next Sunday, according to Israeli media.
Israeli newspapers reported that Regev introduced the suggestion to prevent the evacuation of Israeli settlements.
Regve introduced another proposal previously to annex Jordan Valley settlements, but Justice Minister Tzipi Livni blocked the bill and banned voting for it.
Newspapers said, Benyamin Netanyahu will prevent stating this law in the ministerial committee.
