11 apr 2014
Israeli civil administration plans to confiscate 180 dunams of Palestinian private lands in the Ein Yabrud and Silwad villages to the north of Ramallah in order to establish a wastewater treatment plant for Ofra settlement, Haaretz reported.
In a report published Wednesday, Haaretz explained that the plant has been under construction since 2007 on 20 dumans but the settlement council decided to expand the area of the plant by confiscating more Palestinian lands.
In a report published Wednesday, Haaretz explained that the plant has been under construction since 2007 on 20 dumans but the settlement council decided to expand the area of the plant by confiscating more Palestinian lands.
By Ramzy Baroud
Ramzy Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com.
US Secretary of State John Kerry couldn't hide his frustration anymore as the US-sponsored peace process continued to falter.
After eight months of wrangling to push talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority forward, he admitted while in a visit to Morocco on April 4 that the latest setback had served as a "reality check" for the peace process.
But confining that reality check to the peace process is hardly representative of the painful reality through which the United States has been forced to subsist in during the last few years.
The state of US foreign policy in the Middle East, but also around the world, cannot be described with any buoyant language. In some instances, as in Syria, Libya, Egypt, the Ukraine, and most recently in Palestine and Israel, too many calamitous scenarios have exposed the fault lines of US foreign policy. The succession of crises is not allowing the US to cut its losses in the Middle East and stage a calculated "pivot" to Asia following its disastrous Iraq war.
US foreign policy is almost entirely crippled.
For the Obama administration, it has been a continuous firefighting mission since George W. Bush left office. In fact, there have been too many "reality checks" to count.
Per the logic of the once powerful pro-Israel Washington-based neoconservatives, the invasion of Iraq was a belated attempt at regaining initiative in the Middle East, and controlling a greater share of the energy supplies worldwide.
Sure, the US media had then made much noise about fighting terror, restoring democracies and heralding freedoms, but the neo-cons were hardly secretive about the real objectives. They tirelessly warned about the decline of their country's fortunes. They labored to redraw the map of the Middle East in a way that they imagined would slow down the rise of China, and the other giants that are slowly, but surely, standing on their feet to face up to the post-Cold War superpower.
But all such efforts were bound to fail. The US escaped Iraq, but only after altering the balance of power and creating new classes of winners and losers. The violence of the invasion and occupation scarred Iraq, but also destabilized neighboring countries by overwhelming their economies, augmenting militancy and creating more pressure cookers in political spaces that were, until then, somewhat "stable."
The war left America fatigued, and set the course for a transition in the Middle East, although not the kind of transition that the likes of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had championed. There was no "New Middle East" per se, but rather an old one that is in much worse shape than ever before.
When the last US soldier scheduled to leave Iraq had crossed the border into Kuwait in December 2011, the US was exposed in more ways than one. The limits of US military power was revealed -- by not winning, it had lost. Its economy proved fragile -- as it continues to teeter between collapse and "recovery."
It was left with zero confidence among its friends. As for its enemies, the US was no longer a daunting menace, but a toothless tiger.
There was a short period in US foreign policy strategy in which Washington needed to count its losses, regroup and regain initiative, but not in the Middle East. The Asia Pacific region, especially the South China Sea, seemed to be the most rational restarting point, and for a good reason.
Writing in Forbes magazine in Washington, Robert D. Kaplan described the convergence underway in the Asia pacific region. He wrote, "Russia is increasingly shifting its focus of energy exports to East Asia. China is on track to perhaps become Russia's biggest export market for oil before the end of the decade."
The Middle East is itself changing directions, as the region's hydrocarbon production is increasingly being exported there; Russia is covering the East Asia realm, according to Kaplan, as "North America will soon be looking more and more to the Indo-Pacific region to export its own energy, especially natural gas."
But the US is still being pulled into too many different directions. It has attempted to police the world exclusively for its own interests for the last 25 years. It failed. "Cut and run" is essentially an American foreign policy staple, and that too is a botched approach. Even after the piecemeal US withdrawal from Iraq, the US is too deeply entrenched in the Middle East region to achieve a clean break.
The US took part in the Libya war, but attempted to do so while masking its action as part of a larger NATO drive, so that it shoulders only part of the blame when things went awry, as they predictably have. Since the January 25 revolution, its position on Egypt was perhaps the most inconsistent of all Western powers, unmistakably demonstrating its lack of clarity and relevance to a country with a massive size and influence.
However, it was in Syria that US weaknesses were truly exposed. Military intervention was not possible -- and for reasons none of which were moralistic. Its political influence proved immaterial. And most importantly, its own legions of allies throughout the Middle East are walking away from beneath the American leadership banner. The new destinations are Russia for arms and China for economic alternatives.
President Barack Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia in late March might've been a step too little too late to repair its weakening alliances in the region. Even if the US was ready to mend fences, it neither has the political will, the economic potency or the military prowess to be effective.
True, the US still possesses massive military capabilities and remains the world's largest economy. But the commitment that the Middle East would require from the US at this time of multiple wars and revolutions is by no means the kind of commitment the US is ready to impart. In a way, the US has "lost" the Middle East.
Even the "pivot" to Asia is likely to end in shambles. On the one hand, the US opponents, Russia notwithstanding, have grown much more assertive in recent years. They too have their own agendas, which will keep the US and its willing European allies busy for years. The Russian move against Crimea had once more exposed the limits of US and NATO in regions outside the conventional parameters of western influence.
If the US proved resourceful enough to stage a fight in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, the battle -- over energy supplies, potential reserves, markets and routes -- is likely to be the most grueling yet. China is not Iraq before the US invasion -- broken by decades of war, siege and sanctions. Its geography is too vast to besiege, and its military too massive to destroy with a single "shock and awe."
The US has truly lost the initiative, in the Middle East region and beyond it.
The neo-cons' drunkenness with military power led to costly wars that have overwhelmed the empire beyond salvation. And now, the US foreign policy makers are mere diplomatic firefighters, from Palestine, to Syria to the Ukraine.
For the Americans, the last few years have been more than a "reality check," but the new reality itself.
The views expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily reflect Ma'an News Agency's editorial policy.
Ramzy Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com.
US Secretary of State John Kerry couldn't hide his frustration anymore as the US-sponsored peace process continued to falter.
After eight months of wrangling to push talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority forward, he admitted while in a visit to Morocco on April 4 that the latest setback had served as a "reality check" for the peace process.
But confining that reality check to the peace process is hardly representative of the painful reality through which the United States has been forced to subsist in during the last few years.
The state of US foreign policy in the Middle East, but also around the world, cannot be described with any buoyant language. In some instances, as in Syria, Libya, Egypt, the Ukraine, and most recently in Palestine and Israel, too many calamitous scenarios have exposed the fault lines of US foreign policy. The succession of crises is not allowing the US to cut its losses in the Middle East and stage a calculated "pivot" to Asia following its disastrous Iraq war.
US foreign policy is almost entirely crippled.
For the Obama administration, it has been a continuous firefighting mission since George W. Bush left office. In fact, there have been too many "reality checks" to count.
Per the logic of the once powerful pro-Israel Washington-based neoconservatives, the invasion of Iraq was a belated attempt at regaining initiative in the Middle East, and controlling a greater share of the energy supplies worldwide.
Sure, the US media had then made much noise about fighting terror, restoring democracies and heralding freedoms, but the neo-cons were hardly secretive about the real objectives. They tirelessly warned about the decline of their country's fortunes. They labored to redraw the map of the Middle East in a way that they imagined would slow down the rise of China, and the other giants that are slowly, but surely, standing on their feet to face up to the post-Cold War superpower.
But all such efforts were bound to fail. The US escaped Iraq, but only after altering the balance of power and creating new classes of winners and losers. The violence of the invasion and occupation scarred Iraq, but also destabilized neighboring countries by overwhelming their economies, augmenting militancy and creating more pressure cookers in political spaces that were, until then, somewhat "stable."
The war left America fatigued, and set the course for a transition in the Middle East, although not the kind of transition that the likes of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had championed. There was no "New Middle East" per se, but rather an old one that is in much worse shape than ever before.
When the last US soldier scheduled to leave Iraq had crossed the border into Kuwait in December 2011, the US was exposed in more ways than one. The limits of US military power was revealed -- by not winning, it had lost. Its economy proved fragile -- as it continues to teeter between collapse and "recovery."
It was left with zero confidence among its friends. As for its enemies, the US was no longer a daunting menace, but a toothless tiger.
There was a short period in US foreign policy strategy in which Washington needed to count its losses, regroup and regain initiative, but not in the Middle East. The Asia Pacific region, especially the South China Sea, seemed to be the most rational restarting point, and for a good reason.
Writing in Forbes magazine in Washington, Robert D. Kaplan described the convergence underway in the Asia pacific region. He wrote, "Russia is increasingly shifting its focus of energy exports to East Asia. China is on track to perhaps become Russia's biggest export market for oil before the end of the decade."
The Middle East is itself changing directions, as the region's hydrocarbon production is increasingly being exported there; Russia is covering the East Asia realm, according to Kaplan, as "North America will soon be looking more and more to the Indo-Pacific region to export its own energy, especially natural gas."
But the US is still being pulled into too many different directions. It has attempted to police the world exclusively for its own interests for the last 25 years. It failed. "Cut and run" is essentially an American foreign policy staple, and that too is a botched approach. Even after the piecemeal US withdrawal from Iraq, the US is too deeply entrenched in the Middle East region to achieve a clean break.
The US took part in the Libya war, but attempted to do so while masking its action as part of a larger NATO drive, so that it shoulders only part of the blame when things went awry, as they predictably have. Since the January 25 revolution, its position on Egypt was perhaps the most inconsistent of all Western powers, unmistakably demonstrating its lack of clarity and relevance to a country with a massive size and influence.
However, it was in Syria that US weaknesses were truly exposed. Military intervention was not possible -- and for reasons none of which were moralistic. Its political influence proved immaterial. And most importantly, its own legions of allies throughout the Middle East are walking away from beneath the American leadership banner. The new destinations are Russia for arms and China for economic alternatives.
President Barack Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia in late March might've been a step too little too late to repair its weakening alliances in the region. Even if the US was ready to mend fences, it neither has the political will, the economic potency or the military prowess to be effective.
True, the US still possesses massive military capabilities and remains the world's largest economy. But the commitment that the Middle East would require from the US at this time of multiple wars and revolutions is by no means the kind of commitment the US is ready to impart. In a way, the US has "lost" the Middle East.
Even the "pivot" to Asia is likely to end in shambles. On the one hand, the US opponents, Russia notwithstanding, have grown much more assertive in recent years. They too have their own agendas, which will keep the US and its willing European allies busy for years. The Russian move against Crimea had once more exposed the limits of US and NATO in regions outside the conventional parameters of western influence.
If the US proved resourceful enough to stage a fight in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, the battle -- over energy supplies, potential reserves, markets and routes -- is likely to be the most grueling yet. China is not Iraq before the US invasion -- broken by decades of war, siege and sanctions. Its geography is too vast to besiege, and its military too massive to destroy with a single "shock and awe."
The US has truly lost the initiative, in the Middle East region and beyond it.
The neo-cons' drunkenness with military power led to costly wars that have overwhelmed the empire beyond salvation. And now, the US foreign policy makers are mere diplomatic firefighters, from Palestine, to Syria to the Ukraine.
For the Americans, the last few years have been more than a "reality check," but the new reality itself.
The views expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily reflect Ma'an News Agency's editorial policy.
Last-ditch US efforts to rescue peace talks with the Palestinians are meeting tough resistance within Israel's governing coalition, with the far right threatening to quit over the mooted concessions.
Under huge US pressure to salvage the peace process, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on Friday facing the threat of his cabinet falling apart.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met Thursday under the auspices of US envoy Martin Indyk nearly two weeks after the talks hit fresh crisis when Israel refused to release a final batch of prisoners, and Palestinians retaliated by seeking accession to 15 international treaties.
Israel then said it would freeze the transfer of taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.
Despite the escalations, Israeli media reported a possible deal under which Arab-Israelis would be part of the fourth batch of prisoners still to be freed under commitments made when the US kick-started the peace negotiations last July.
In return, the Palestinians would agree to extend the talks beyond their April 29 deadline and Washington would release American-born Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, the reports said.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki called speculation over a deal "premature," and also said no decision had been reached on Pollard.
But Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, who heads the far-right Jewish Home party, threatened to pull his party out of the coalition if such a deal was reached.
"If the government proposes this deal to us, the Jewish Home party will pull out of the coalition," he said in a statement after the tripartite meeting.
If Bennett's party of 12 MPs quit the coalition, Netanyahu would have only 56 seats, four short of the 60 necessary in the 120-seat parliament, forcing either a search for a new coalition partner or fresh elections.
Bennett's 'familiar threats tactic'
Officials from Netanyahu's Likud party dismissed Bennett's threat, telling media that "nobody is being held in the coalition against their will," and noting they were already familiar with Bennett’s tactic of "making idle threats he knows will never materialize."
Journalist and political commentator Yossi Elituv said the only thing that would cause Bennett to leave the coalition would be if he were "kicked out."
His attitude is "to be in the government, threaten to leave and never quit," he told AFP.
The real threat comes from within Netanyahu's own Likud party.
Deputy foreign minister Zeev Elkin said a deal including a settlement construction freeze and release of prisoners, after the Palestinians applied to international institutions, "could shock the political system and force Israel into new elections."
Zehava Galon of the left-wing Meretz party said on Friday that "there was only one thing currently less reliable than Bennett's threats to leave over the negotiations -- the negotiations themselves."
One way for Netanyahu to maintain his coalition if the Jewish Home left would be with the Labor party, which currently heads the opposition.
Elituv said Netanyahu and Labor leader Issac Herzog "were dying" to form a new coalition, "but it's not up to them."
After Israel announced it would be freezing the transfer of taxes it collects for the PA, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat lashed out, calling the move "Israeli hijacking and the theft of the Palestinian people's money."
Even as tensions rose, there still appeared to be a determination to continue the peace process, none more so than with Washington, which risked seeing an entire year of intensive work disappear, wrote Sima Kadmon in Israel's mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot newspaper.
"Despite the evasive games, it is too soon to eulogize the prisoner deal or bury the negotiations, and mainly it is too soon to talk about early elections," she wrote.
Under huge US pressure to salvage the peace process, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on Friday facing the threat of his cabinet falling apart.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met Thursday under the auspices of US envoy Martin Indyk nearly two weeks after the talks hit fresh crisis when Israel refused to release a final batch of prisoners, and Palestinians retaliated by seeking accession to 15 international treaties.
Israel then said it would freeze the transfer of taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.
Despite the escalations, Israeli media reported a possible deal under which Arab-Israelis would be part of the fourth batch of prisoners still to be freed under commitments made when the US kick-started the peace negotiations last July.
In return, the Palestinians would agree to extend the talks beyond their April 29 deadline and Washington would release American-born Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, the reports said.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki called speculation over a deal "premature," and also said no decision had been reached on Pollard.
But Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, who heads the far-right Jewish Home party, threatened to pull his party out of the coalition if such a deal was reached.
"If the government proposes this deal to us, the Jewish Home party will pull out of the coalition," he said in a statement after the tripartite meeting.
If Bennett's party of 12 MPs quit the coalition, Netanyahu would have only 56 seats, four short of the 60 necessary in the 120-seat parliament, forcing either a search for a new coalition partner or fresh elections.
Bennett's 'familiar threats tactic'
Officials from Netanyahu's Likud party dismissed Bennett's threat, telling media that "nobody is being held in the coalition against their will," and noting they were already familiar with Bennett’s tactic of "making idle threats he knows will never materialize."
Journalist and political commentator Yossi Elituv said the only thing that would cause Bennett to leave the coalition would be if he were "kicked out."
His attitude is "to be in the government, threaten to leave and never quit," he told AFP.
The real threat comes from within Netanyahu's own Likud party.
Deputy foreign minister Zeev Elkin said a deal including a settlement construction freeze and release of prisoners, after the Palestinians applied to international institutions, "could shock the political system and force Israel into new elections."
Zehava Galon of the left-wing Meretz party said on Friday that "there was only one thing currently less reliable than Bennett's threats to leave over the negotiations -- the negotiations themselves."
One way for Netanyahu to maintain his coalition if the Jewish Home left would be with the Labor party, which currently heads the opposition.
Elituv said Netanyahu and Labor leader Issac Herzog "were dying" to form a new coalition, "but it's not up to them."
After Israel announced it would be freezing the transfer of taxes it collects for the PA, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat lashed out, calling the move "Israeli hijacking and the theft of the Palestinian people's money."
Even as tensions rose, there still appeared to be a determination to continue the peace process, none more so than with Washington, which risked seeing an entire year of intensive work disappear, wrote Sima Kadmon in Israel's mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot newspaper.
"Despite the evasive games, it is too soon to eulogize the prisoner deal or bury the negotiations, and mainly it is too soon to talk about early elections," she wrote.
Hamas said that it firmly rejects the potential extension of peace talks between the Palestinian authority (PA) and the Israeli occupation authority (IOA). Its spokesman Sami Abou Zahri said in a statement on Thursday that his Movement demands the PA not to persist in flouting the Palestinian national position that rejects the peace process.
Negotiation meetings are still ongoing between the PA and the IOA. An extension deal is reported to be on the way.
Negotiation meetings are still ongoing between the PA and the IOA. An extension deal is reported to be on the way.
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Chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, says Israel’s imposition of economic sanctions against the Palestinian Authority (PA) is tantamount to “theft.”
On Thursday, Erekat called the sanctions an act of "Israeli hijacking and the theft of the Palestinian people's money." The decision is a "violation of international law and norms by Israel" in revenge for the Palestinians' move to join a raft of international treaties, he added. An Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity said earlier in the day that Tel Aviv will deduct debt payments from tax transfers which the PA routinely receives, and will limit its bank deposits in Israel. |
The official added that Israel had "decided this evening to deduct debts of the Palestinian Authority to Israel from tax revenue transfers."
The revenues, which Israel collects on goods bound for the Palestinian market, amount to about USD 100 million a month and account for about two thirds of the Palestinian budget.
The Tel Aviv regime refused to free the last group of 104 Palestinian prisoners late March as part of a deal for the resumption of US-sponsored negotiations with the PA. Acting PA chief, Mahmoud Abbas, responded by signing letters of accession to 15 international conventions on April 1.
The revenues, which Israel collects on goods bound for the Palestinian market, amount to about USD 100 million a month and account for about two thirds of the Palestinian budget.
The Tel Aviv regime refused to free the last group of 104 Palestinian prisoners late March as part of a deal for the resumption of US-sponsored negotiations with the PA. Acting PA chief, Mahmoud Abbas, responded by signing letters of accession to 15 international conventions on April 1.
The head of the Arab League said Thursday he is confident that Israel and the Palestinians soon will resolve a crisis over the release of long-held Palestinian prisoners and extend their U.S.-brokered peace negotiations beyond an April deadline.
Nabil Elaraby told The Associated Press that the April 29 deadline would be extended and rejected the idea that the talks have failed to make progress.
"I believe that negotiations are going to be resumed for several months and we hope that this will be the end of it," Elaraby said at the Nile-side Cairo headquarters of the Arab League.
Elaraby, a longtime Egyptian diplomat, did not elaborate, but he did say that he "had contact" with US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is leading the talks.
As Elaraby spoke, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met for the fourth consecutive day with U.S. mediators trying to break the impasse.
Palestinian officials said the atmosphere had improved from early in the week, but there was still no deal. "The gap between the sides is still wide on all the issues," said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator.
"No one has given up, but we're not there yet," an Israeli official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the sides have promised Kerry not to discuss the talks with journalists.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met in Cairo with Egyptian leaders and held talks with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. Elaraby also met with Ashton.
Elaraby sharply criticized Israel in the interview for continuing construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem's eastern sector, areas captured by Israel in 1967 and claimed by Palestinians as part of a future state, along with the Gaza Strip.
"Israel is the only country in the world that sees time to be of strategic, not tactical, importance so it can change conditions on the ground," he said. "They want to gain time and they will continue to do so."
He said an Arab League peace plan first announced more than a decade ago remained "one of the main vehicles" for achieving a settlement, but Israel has ignored it.
"Israel did not react positively or negatively to the plan. It just disregards the plan," he said. The blueprint for a settlement envisages an Israeli withdrawal from all Arab territory it occupied in 1967 and the creation of a Palestinian state in exchange for the recognition of Israel by all Arab states.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said little publicly about the Arab peace plan. But he objects to key aspects of the plan, including accepting Israel's pre-1967 borders as the basis of a future border and the return of Palestinian refugees to what is now Israel. The plan calls for a "just settlement" of the refugee issue.
Under heavy pressure from Kerry, Israel and the Palestinians resumed negotiations last July, aiming to reach a final peace deal within nine months. With little to show for his efforts, Kerry scaled back his goal to reaching a "framework" deal by the April deadline and then extend negotiations through the end of the year.
Even that more modest goal has been elusive. Kerry is now merely trying to get the sides to continue talking past April 29.
Under the terms of the current talks, Israel agreed to release 104 of the longest-serving Palestinian prisoners it holds in four groups. In exchange, the Palestinians suspended their campaign for international recognition of the "state of Palestine" in U.N. and other international bodies.
The talks snagged when Israel failed to carry out the fourth and final promised prisoner release late last month. It then approved plans to build 700 new homes in east Jerusalem. The Palestinians responded by signing letters of accession to join 15 international conventions.
Israel has since imposed a series of sanctions on the Palestinians -- halting high-level contacts and blocking the transfer of advanced mobile-phone equipment to the Gaza Strip. It also says it will not carry out the final prisoner release.
Israel initially balked at the release of the last batch of prisoners because it wanted the Palestinians to commit to an extension of the negotiations before the release took place. Also, the release was to include 14 Arab Israelis from Jerusalem and a native of Syria's Golan Heights, captured in 1967 and later annexed by Israel. Israel has resisted including Israeli Arabs in a deal, saying it would be a dangerous precedent for Abbas to be representing Israeli citizens.
Elaraby's comments came a day after Arab foreign ministers meeting at the Arab League blamed Israel for the lack of progress in the peace talks.
Elaraby also spoke about the turmoil in his native Egypt and other Arab nations caught up in the Arab Spring revolts since late 2010. He said it was too early to judge the outcome of the uprisings.
"Don't judge the Arab Spring at this phase of it. Let us wait until the end to see how it develops," said Elaraby, a career diplomat and a former foreign minister.
In Egypt, the military-backed government has arrested more than 16,000 people and killed hundreds in a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood since the military ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July. The government accuses the group of fomenting violence, a claim the Brotherhood denies.
"There are certain excesses in responding to violent actions that should be curtailed, as a matter of fact, and should not continue," Elaraby said.
"But as long as you are moving toward democracy and a constitutional form of government, a price has to be paid," he said, alluding to a new constitution passed in January and presidential elections to be held next month.
He also spoke of the Arab league's limitations in handling the Syria conflict, which has claimed at least 150,000 lives and displaced millions since March 2011.
The League, he said, did everything it could within and beyond the limitations of its 1945 charter, including measures that had never been taken before, like sending cease-fire monitors to Syria and slapping sanctions on President Bashar Assad's regime.
But he said the charter needs to be amended to give the League "more flexibility, more operational possibilities and mechanisms."
He said the Syrian opposition would take Syria's seat starting with a League ministerial meeting scheduled for September, but the capacity of the Syria representative has yet to be decided.
The opposition was given Syria's seat in an Arab League summit held in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar last year. But in this year's summit in Kuwait last month, several nations blocked the League from giving the opposition the seat.
Nabil Elaraby told The Associated Press that the April 29 deadline would be extended and rejected the idea that the talks have failed to make progress.
"I believe that negotiations are going to be resumed for several months and we hope that this will be the end of it," Elaraby said at the Nile-side Cairo headquarters of the Arab League.
Elaraby, a longtime Egyptian diplomat, did not elaborate, but he did say that he "had contact" with US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is leading the talks.
As Elaraby spoke, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met for the fourth consecutive day with U.S. mediators trying to break the impasse.
Palestinian officials said the atmosphere had improved from early in the week, but there was still no deal. "The gap between the sides is still wide on all the issues," said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator.
"No one has given up, but we're not there yet," an Israeli official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the sides have promised Kerry not to discuss the talks with journalists.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met in Cairo with Egyptian leaders and held talks with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. Elaraby also met with Ashton.
Elaraby sharply criticized Israel in the interview for continuing construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem's eastern sector, areas captured by Israel in 1967 and claimed by Palestinians as part of a future state, along with the Gaza Strip.
"Israel is the only country in the world that sees time to be of strategic, not tactical, importance so it can change conditions on the ground," he said. "They want to gain time and they will continue to do so."
He said an Arab League peace plan first announced more than a decade ago remained "one of the main vehicles" for achieving a settlement, but Israel has ignored it.
"Israel did not react positively or negatively to the plan. It just disregards the plan," he said. The blueprint for a settlement envisages an Israeli withdrawal from all Arab territory it occupied in 1967 and the creation of a Palestinian state in exchange for the recognition of Israel by all Arab states.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said little publicly about the Arab peace plan. But he objects to key aspects of the plan, including accepting Israel's pre-1967 borders as the basis of a future border and the return of Palestinian refugees to what is now Israel. The plan calls for a "just settlement" of the refugee issue.
Under heavy pressure from Kerry, Israel and the Palestinians resumed negotiations last July, aiming to reach a final peace deal within nine months. With little to show for his efforts, Kerry scaled back his goal to reaching a "framework" deal by the April deadline and then extend negotiations through the end of the year.
Even that more modest goal has been elusive. Kerry is now merely trying to get the sides to continue talking past April 29.
Under the terms of the current talks, Israel agreed to release 104 of the longest-serving Palestinian prisoners it holds in four groups. In exchange, the Palestinians suspended their campaign for international recognition of the "state of Palestine" in U.N. and other international bodies.
The talks snagged when Israel failed to carry out the fourth and final promised prisoner release late last month. It then approved plans to build 700 new homes in east Jerusalem. The Palestinians responded by signing letters of accession to join 15 international conventions.
Israel has since imposed a series of sanctions on the Palestinians -- halting high-level contacts and blocking the transfer of advanced mobile-phone equipment to the Gaza Strip. It also says it will not carry out the final prisoner release.
Israel initially balked at the release of the last batch of prisoners because it wanted the Palestinians to commit to an extension of the negotiations before the release took place. Also, the release was to include 14 Arab Israelis from Jerusalem and a native of Syria's Golan Heights, captured in 1967 and later annexed by Israel. Israel has resisted including Israeli Arabs in a deal, saying it would be a dangerous precedent for Abbas to be representing Israeli citizens.
Elaraby's comments came a day after Arab foreign ministers meeting at the Arab League blamed Israel for the lack of progress in the peace talks.
Elaraby also spoke about the turmoil in his native Egypt and other Arab nations caught up in the Arab Spring revolts since late 2010. He said it was too early to judge the outcome of the uprisings.
"Don't judge the Arab Spring at this phase of it. Let us wait until the end to see how it develops," said Elaraby, a career diplomat and a former foreign minister.
In Egypt, the military-backed government has arrested more than 16,000 people and killed hundreds in a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood since the military ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July. The government accuses the group of fomenting violence, a claim the Brotherhood denies.
"There are certain excesses in responding to violent actions that should be curtailed, as a matter of fact, and should not continue," Elaraby said.
"But as long as you are moving toward democracy and a constitutional form of government, a price has to be paid," he said, alluding to a new constitution passed in January and presidential elections to be held next month.
He also spoke of the Arab league's limitations in handling the Syria conflict, which has claimed at least 150,000 lives and displaced millions since March 2011.
The League, he said, did everything it could within and beyond the limitations of its 1945 charter, including measures that had never been taken before, like sending cease-fire monitors to Syria and slapping sanctions on President Bashar Assad's regime.
But he said the charter needs to be amended to give the League "more flexibility, more operational possibilities and mechanisms."
He said the Syrian opposition would take Syria's seat starting with a League ministerial meeting scheduled for September, but the capacity of the Syria representative has yet to be decided.
The opposition was given Syria's seat in an Arab League summit held in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar last year. But in this year's summit in Kuwait last month, several nations blocked the League from giving the opposition the seat.
Palestine and Jordan submitted a resolution to the UNESCO Executive Board to send a fact-finding commission to investigate the situation of heritage sites in Jerusalem and in other Palestinian towns and to submit its detailed report to the World heritage committee that will be held in Doha, Qatar at the end of June.
The decision came during the meeting of the UNESCO Executive Board that took place in Paris on Thursday. New supportive attitudes from European countries such as England, France, Italy, Austria and Spain, were expressed in the meeting, except The United States which rejected the decision.
Palestine and Jordan called through the UNESCO Executive Board and the World heritage committee, the Israeli authorities to stop their violations and illegal measures in Jerusalem and Palestine.
The decision came during the meeting of the UNESCO Executive Board that took place in Paris on Thursday. New supportive attitudes from European countries such as England, France, Italy, Austria and Spain, were expressed in the meeting, except The United States which rejected the decision.
Palestine and Jordan called through the UNESCO Executive Board and the World heritage committee, the Israeli authorities to stop their violations and illegal measures in Jerusalem and Palestine.
The United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, officially signed documents that allow the Palestinians' accession to 10 United Nations international conventions and treaties.
Israel Channel 10 said the Palestinians are planning to join the Fourth Geneva Convention to protect the civilians in armed struggles and the The Hague Convention that deals with the International laws.
In a related context, the channel added, the issue of the prisoners was an essential topic in the agenda of the third negotiation meeting that was held Thursday afternoon, as Israel proposed to release some of the prisoners on a condition to deport them from their homes, a proposal that was totally rejected by the Palestinians.
Israel Channel 10 said the Palestinians are planning to join the Fourth Geneva Convention to protect the civilians in armed struggles and the The Hague Convention that deals with the International laws.
In a related context, the channel added, the issue of the prisoners was an essential topic in the agenda of the third negotiation meeting that was held Thursday afternoon, as Israel proposed to release some of the prisoners on a condition to deport them from their homes, a proposal that was totally rejected by the Palestinians.
A peace agreement was approved by Palestinian and Israeli negotiators in the presence of U.S. special convoy for peace process Martin Indyk after they met in occupied Jerusalem to seek ways to end the crisis and resume negotiations. News reporter of Israel's channel 10 quoted Israeli sources as saying that “an agreement to be executed within a few days has been reached between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israeli Occupation Authorities (IOA).”
According to the news reporter, negotiation meetings where overwhelmed with a relative optimism as all the partakers were willing to resume talks.
A three-session negotiation meeting was held, for the fourth time since the peace talk crisis last week, between PA, IOA and the U.S to find a way out of the potential exacerbation of peace talks 18 days before the cut-off date.
The agreement lays down extension permits for the ongoing negotiations and the release of a fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners, including 48 Arabs, and the release of 400 to 480 additional prisoners, including Marwan Barghouthi, along with the release of the Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard jailed in U.S prisons, according to Israeli sources.
Jonathan Pollard, former expert in the U.S. Navy, was arrested in the United States in 1985 for having transmitted thousands of secret documents about American intelligence activities in the Arab world to Israeli authorities.
The peace negotiations resumed at the end of last July, after a three-year hiatus, following arduous efforts made by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who managed to clinch an agreement on the resumption of peace talks for nine months, until the end of the current month.
According to the news reporter, negotiation meetings where overwhelmed with a relative optimism as all the partakers were willing to resume talks.
A three-session negotiation meeting was held, for the fourth time since the peace talk crisis last week, between PA, IOA and the U.S to find a way out of the potential exacerbation of peace talks 18 days before the cut-off date.
The agreement lays down extension permits for the ongoing negotiations and the release of a fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners, including 48 Arabs, and the release of 400 to 480 additional prisoners, including Marwan Barghouthi, along with the release of the Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard jailed in U.S prisons, according to Israeli sources.
Jonathan Pollard, former expert in the U.S. Navy, was arrested in the United States in 1985 for having transmitted thousands of secret documents about American intelligence activities in the Arab world to Israeli authorities.
The peace negotiations resumed at the end of last July, after a three-year hiatus, following arduous efforts made by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who managed to clinch an agreement on the resumption of peace talks for nine months, until the end of the current month.
In another measure meant to “punish” the Palestinian Authority (P.A) in the West Bank for signing 15 international treaties, the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu decided to enforce various sanctions, and placed a hold on the transfer of Palestinian Tax money it collects on West Bank border terminals. Talking on condition of anonymity, an Israeli official told the France Press that the decision is meant to pressure the P.A into halting all of its international moves, and resume peace talks with Tel Aviv.
He added that Israel also suspended its participation in a project to develop a gas field near the Gaza shore.
The decision is part of economic and political sanctions imposed by Israel on the Palestinians for deciding to join 15 international conventions last week. Tel Aviv “justifies” its move by alleging the Palestinians breached the condition that led to the resumption of direct peace talks.
An Israeli official also told the AFP that Tel Aviv would be deducting what he called debt payments from tax money Israel collects on border terminals on behalf of the P.A., which has no control on West Bank border terminals.
The sanctions imposed upon the P.A. will cost it around $110-150 Million collected monthly by Israel; the money is roughly two-thirds of income that is usually transferred to the Palestinian Authority. It is used for paying salaries, pensions, and other services provided to the Palestinians.
Israel previously suspended the transfer of Palestinian Tax money whenever the P.A joined international treaties, including when the P.A managed to obtain an observer state status at the United Nations. Back then, the United States also halted the transfer of aid money to the P.A.
Talking to Reuters, Palestinian official Yasser Abed Rabbo said sanctions imposed by Israel do not scare the Palestinians, and only prove Israel is a racist state that resorts to illegitimate acts of collective punishment, in addition to its ongoing settlement construction and expansion activities, in direct violation of International Law.
On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his ministers to stop their meetings with Palestinian officials, and to hold all sorts of economic and civil cooperation.
Israel also canceled all VIP permits its grants to Palestinian officials and businesspersons to ease their travel, exports and imports on border terminals in the occupied West Bank.
Also, among the sanctions imposed on Palestinians, Tel Aviv decided to halt the transfer of telecommunications equipment that the Watania cellular company wanted to send to Gaza to install 3G technology.
Israel also suspended plans for developing new Palestinian communities in Area C of the occupied West Bank, under Israeli civil and military control.
The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank said it cannot continue direct talks with Tel Aviv while Israel is ongoing with its illegitimate activities, including daily arrests and invasions, and its ongoing and escalating construction and expansion activities of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem.
He added that Israel also suspended its participation in a project to develop a gas field near the Gaza shore.
The decision is part of economic and political sanctions imposed by Israel on the Palestinians for deciding to join 15 international conventions last week. Tel Aviv “justifies” its move by alleging the Palestinians breached the condition that led to the resumption of direct peace talks.
An Israeli official also told the AFP that Tel Aviv would be deducting what he called debt payments from tax money Israel collects on border terminals on behalf of the P.A., which has no control on West Bank border terminals.
The sanctions imposed upon the P.A. will cost it around $110-150 Million collected monthly by Israel; the money is roughly two-thirds of income that is usually transferred to the Palestinian Authority. It is used for paying salaries, pensions, and other services provided to the Palestinians.
Israel previously suspended the transfer of Palestinian Tax money whenever the P.A joined international treaties, including when the P.A managed to obtain an observer state status at the United Nations. Back then, the United States also halted the transfer of aid money to the P.A.
Talking to Reuters, Palestinian official Yasser Abed Rabbo said sanctions imposed by Israel do not scare the Palestinians, and only prove Israel is a racist state that resorts to illegitimate acts of collective punishment, in addition to its ongoing settlement construction and expansion activities, in direct violation of International Law.
On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his ministers to stop their meetings with Palestinian officials, and to hold all sorts of economic and civil cooperation.
Israel also canceled all VIP permits its grants to Palestinian officials and businesspersons to ease their travel, exports and imports on border terminals in the occupied West Bank.
Also, among the sanctions imposed on Palestinians, Tel Aviv decided to halt the transfer of telecommunications equipment that the Watania cellular company wanted to send to Gaza to install 3G technology.
Israel also suspended plans for developing new Palestinian communities in Area C of the occupied West Bank, under Israeli civil and military control.
The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank said it cannot continue direct talks with Tel Aviv while Israel is ongoing with its illegitimate activities, including daily arrests and invasions, and its ongoing and escalating construction and expansion activities of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem.
