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Israelis Say Settlements Must Be Part of Israeli State
By ETHAN BRONNER
Published: January 27, 2012
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JERUSALEM Israeli negotiators told their Palestinian counterparts this week that their guiding principle for drawing the borders of a future two-state solution would be for existing settlement blocks to become part of Israel, an approach that the Palestinians rejected as unacceptable.
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The discussion, which occurred in Jordan on Wednesday night, was the first time the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally told the Palestinian Authority how it would seek to handle the territorial part of their negotiations, although Mr. Netanyahu had made the point publicly to Congress in Washington in May.
A Palestinian official said the offer effectively abandons international law and the framework we have been focused on for the past 20 years. Speaking on the condition of anonymity on the subject of the talks, as did Israeli officials, the Palestinian said, If you put it in perspective, it is as if the West Bank were not occupied, just disputed, with both sides having legitimate claims, while the rest of Israel remains outside the dispute.
An Israeli official defended the offer.
The principle we laid out on Wednesday is that the majority of Palestinians should be on the Palestinian side and the majority of Jews on our side, that official said. These are preliminary discussions. The Palestinians have asked for clarification. We have asked for clarifications from them on some things as well. And we hope that in the coming weeks these talks will continue.
The Palestinians said they saw little reason to keep the talks started under Jordanian sponsorship this month going.
Israels response does not lead us to real negotiations, said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority.
The Palestinian official who spoke anonymously added that the Israeli negotiator, Yitzhak Molho, did not provide any written documents or maps in his discussion with the Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, and did not include Jerusalem or the Jordan Valley in what he discussed.
Our starting point is the 1967 borders with minor swaps and theirs is the wall and settlements, he said, referring to the separation barrier Israel has been building for the past decade along and inside the West Bank. In some ways, this is their way of reframing the occupation.
Jordan has played host to five meetings for Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in an effort to get them back to full-blown peace talks after a break of more than a year.
The Palestinian view is that the terms of the talks laid out last fall by the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States required both sides to present their approach to borders and security by this week. The Israelis say the clock began ticking only when the two sides actually sat down this month and the deadline is therefore in April.
The international players known as the quartet have been pressing Israel to find ways to keep the talks going, including through possible prisoner releases and some transfer of authority over West Bank land. Catherine Ashton, the European Unions foreign policy chief, was in the region this week and said after meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders that she believed the talks could continue.
President Abbas is thinking carefully about how to move forward, she said.
Mr. Abbas is pursuing three tracks to Palestinian statehood simultaneously. None is going well. Besides the Jordanian-sponsored talks, he is trying to create unity with Hamas, which rules in Gaza, and is also seeking statehood recognition at the United Nations.
Israel has settled hundreds of thousands of its Jewish citizens in East Jerusalem and the West Bank since the 1967 Middle East war when it won those areas from Jordan. In addition to seeking to keep some of that territory for ideological and strategic reasons, the Israeli government wants to uproot as few of the settlers as possible. The Palestinians say those settlers are living on land that rightly belongs to them and their future state.
Israel is NEVER going to go back to Borders that the Arabs NEVER recognized in the first place. They are NEVER going to leave Jerusalem. We see what happened after they left Gaza. The same will happen if the leave the W. Bank ( which they won't). In additition the S**MBAG Abbas wants " Right of Return??" lol
By ETHAN BRONNER
Published: January 27, 2012
Recommend
Sign In to E-Mail
Reprints
Share
.
JERUSALEM Israeli negotiators told their Palestinian counterparts this week that their guiding principle for drawing the borders of a future two-state solution would be for existing settlement blocks to become part of Israel, an approach that the Palestinians rejected as unacceptable.
Connect With Us on Twitter
Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines.
Twitter List: Reporters and Editors
.
The discussion, which occurred in Jordan on Wednesday night, was the first time the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally told the Palestinian Authority how it would seek to handle the territorial part of their negotiations, although Mr. Netanyahu had made the point publicly to Congress in Washington in May.
A Palestinian official said the offer effectively abandons international law and the framework we have been focused on for the past 20 years. Speaking on the condition of anonymity on the subject of the talks, as did Israeli officials, the Palestinian said, If you put it in perspective, it is as if the West Bank were not occupied, just disputed, with both sides having legitimate claims, while the rest of Israel remains outside the dispute.
An Israeli official defended the offer.
The principle we laid out on Wednesday is that the majority of Palestinians should be on the Palestinian side and the majority of Jews on our side, that official said. These are preliminary discussions. The Palestinians have asked for clarification. We have asked for clarifications from them on some things as well. And we hope that in the coming weeks these talks will continue.
The Palestinians said they saw little reason to keep the talks started under Jordanian sponsorship this month going.
Israels response does not lead us to real negotiations, said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority.
The Palestinian official who spoke anonymously added that the Israeli negotiator, Yitzhak Molho, did not provide any written documents or maps in his discussion with the Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, and did not include Jerusalem or the Jordan Valley in what he discussed.
Our starting point is the 1967 borders with minor swaps and theirs is the wall and settlements, he said, referring to the separation barrier Israel has been building for the past decade along and inside the West Bank. In some ways, this is their way of reframing the occupation.
Jordan has played host to five meetings for Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in an effort to get them back to full-blown peace talks after a break of more than a year.
The Palestinian view is that the terms of the talks laid out last fall by the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States required both sides to present their approach to borders and security by this week. The Israelis say the clock began ticking only when the two sides actually sat down this month and the deadline is therefore in April.
The international players known as the quartet have been pressing Israel to find ways to keep the talks going, including through possible prisoner releases and some transfer of authority over West Bank land. Catherine Ashton, the European Unions foreign policy chief, was in the region this week and said after meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders that she believed the talks could continue.
President Abbas is thinking carefully about how to move forward, she said.
Mr. Abbas is pursuing three tracks to Palestinian statehood simultaneously. None is going well. Besides the Jordanian-sponsored talks, he is trying to create unity with Hamas, which rules in Gaza, and is also seeking statehood recognition at the United Nations.
Israel has settled hundreds of thousands of its Jewish citizens in East Jerusalem and the West Bank since the 1967 Middle East war when it won those areas from Jordan. In addition to seeking to keep some of that territory for ideological and strategic reasons, the Israeli government wants to uproot as few of the settlers as possible. The Palestinians say those settlers are living on land that rightly belongs to them and their future state.
Israel is NEVER going to go back to Borders that the Arabs NEVER recognized in the first place. They are NEVER going to leave Jerusalem. We see what happened after they left Gaza. The same will happen if the leave the W. Bank ( which they won't). In additition the S**MBAG Abbas wants " Right of Return??" lol
