Following Boston Globe article is: Jerusalem Post: "Clinton announces direct talks to resume on Sept. 2" & Ha'aretz: "Netanyahu welcomes renewal of direct peace talks with Palestinians"
---------------------------------------------
Boston Globe: "Stakes are high in Mideast peace talks"
Obama will have key peace-seeking role
By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff
WASHINGTON -- The United States will host the launch of direct peace negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Washington early next month, a diplomatic breakthrough for the Obama administration, which has invested much of the president's global political capital in an attempt to broker peace in the Middle East.
The talks announced yesterday are aimed at creating an independent Palestinian state and ending the decades-old conflict. But they face steep resistance among some in the region and could produce more violence in the short term, especially if they collapse, as previous efforts have.
"The enemies of peace will keep trying to defeat us and to derail these talks,'' Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned yesterday at the State Department as she stood alongside George Mitchell, special Middle East envoy, who conducted 20 months of grueling shuttle diplomacy to get the parties back to the negotiating table. "But I ask the parties to persevere, to keep moving forward even through difficult times.''
Israeli and Palestinian officials have not engaged in face-to-face peace talks since December 2008.
President Obama will play a high-profile role that will cast him as a potential international peace maker at the start of the negotiations, which are supposed to conclude within one year.
The plan calls for Obama to meet separately in Washington with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority president, on Sept 1. That evening, the president will host a White House dinner that is expected to be attended by Netanyahu and Abbas, as well as King Abdullah II of Jordan and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, whose countries have peace deals with Israel.
The next day, Clinton and Mitchell will sit down with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders at the State Department to sketch out a framework for future meetings, and the sequence in which the parties will tackle contentious issues that have divided them for decades. Those issues include defining Israel's borders, the rights of Palestinians to return to Israel, and the status of East Jerusalem.
Israelis and Palestinians will negotiate with one another directly, said Mitchell, but US officials will stand ready to provide ideas for potential compromises if the two sides reach an impasse. "We will be active participants,'' he said.
The extent of Obama's personal involvement moving forward is an open question, counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, who is on Martha's Vineyard with Obama, told reporters yesterday. But he left no doubt of the president's optimism.
"There is a feeling, I think, within this administration that the parties have a strong commitment to forging peace that can endure,'' he said.
The talks will be the most hands-on White House engagement in the process since President Clinton personally managed talks at Camp David in 2000. The failure of that effort helped spark the second Palestinian uprising.
"Peace between Israel and Palestine has always eluded presidents,'' said Douglas Brinkley, a history professor at Rice University. But he said Obama's outreach to the Muslim world, including his statement in support of a mosque near ground zero, positions him to be seen as "a fairly decent broker'' in the Middle East.
President George W. Bush was widely criticized for taking a more hands-off approach to the conflict. But in the end of his second term, he called a conference in Annapolis that brought Abbas together with Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert. Bush made a brief appearance at the conference, and US officials provided minimal support for those talks, believing that peace can only be hammered out by the parties. Those talks broke down in 2008, as Israel was on the verge of a major military operation in Gaza.
Obama appointed George Mitchell -- a former senator from Maine who tirelessly midwifed the peace process in Northern Ireland -- on his second day in office, taking on a thorny issue that other presidents have left to their second terms. But for nearly two years, Mitchell's effort was widely seen as failing. Palestinians refused to resume bargaining until Israel stopped constructing settlements in the West Bank; Israel initially rebuffed the demand, but imposed a moratorium on construction last November, which is due to expire Sept. 26.
Abbas had also refused new talks unless Israel agreed to a one-year deadline on negotiations, an attempt to guarantee that the effort would be serious.
Abbas faces adamant political rivals who have attacked him for negotiating with Israel. Yesterday, Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, called the talks a "new attempt to deceive the Palestinian people and international public opinion.''
Gaith Al-Omari, advocacy director of the American Task Force on Palestine who is a former aide to Abbas, said that the Palestinian president agreed to resume peace talks under intense international pressure, and because he worried that Obama was beginning to see him as the problem.
"There was a recognition that inevitably, he was going to have to come back to the table, and the longer he waited, he would lose more diplomatic credibility,'' Omari said. "He was worried about losing Obama. There was no pressure from Obama himself, but the message was sent by Europeans and others that 'you might be losing the president.' ''
Obama has met with Abbas and Netanyahu in recent months and urged them to return to talks. The administration has also put unusual pressure on Israel to stop building settlements in the West Bank -- a sharp departure from Bush, who signed an agreement with the Israelis to keep some settlement blocs.
The administration's tough stance against the settlements attracted some harsh criticism, especially when it did not lead to a resumption of peace talks.
But yesterday, domestic policy groups applauded the Obama administration's efforts.
"Now the real hard work must begin,'' said a statement from Americans for Peace Now, an advocacy group dedicated to resolving the conflict. "Direct talks are not an end in themselves. . . . There is no more room for game-playing or procrastinating to avoid hard discussions and even harder decisions.''
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee -- the largest pro-Israel lobby -- issued a statement welcoming the talks, but said: "For talks to succeed the PA must match Israel's commitment to conducting peace talks without preconditions or excuses.''
Even if the leaders reach a peace agreement, it will be difficult to persuade all factions to accept it. Israel's most entrenched settlers believe they have a religious right to land in the West Bank, while Hamas continues to lay claim to Israel. Hamas will have no role in the talks, Mitchell said. But when asked why this effort had any hope of success, Mitchell brought up the lessons of Northern Ireland.
"We had 700 days of failure, and one day of success,'' he said.
Matt Viser and Mark Arsenault of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
-----------------------------------
Jerusalem Post: "Clinton announces direct talks to resume on Sept. 2"
By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER
20/08/2010
Washington to invite Israel and Palestinians to peace negotiations; Netanyahu welcomes decision saying reaching an agreement is 'difficult challenge but possible.'
WASHINGTON - Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians are set to commence at the beginning of September and within a year should lead to the resolution of all final status issues, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Friday.
Clinton said she had invited Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to Washington on September 2 "to re-launch direct negotiations to resolve all final status issues, which we believe can be completed within one year."
She acknowledged that the goal would be a challenging one.
"Without a doubt, we will hit more obstacles," she noted. "The enemies of peace will keep trying to defeat us and to derail these talks. But I ask the parties to persevere, to keep moving forward even through difficult times, and to continue working to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region."
Netanyahu and Abbas are expected to first meet individually with US President Barack Obama on September 1, when Obama will also hold bilateral meetings with King Abdullah of Jordan and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, topped off by a dinner for all four that night.
Clinton, who will preside over the trilateral meeting the next day, said that the negotiations themselves would start with no preconditions. They are due to be held in various places to be worked out, including at times in the region itself.
"These negotiations should take place without preconditions and be characterized by good faith and a commitment to their success," Clinton stressed.
Israel has insisted that there not be preconditions to the talks, which has held up Palestinian participation as the latter have made demands ranging from a total settlement freeze, including building over the Green Line in Jerusalem, to talks from where they broke off under the previous Israeli premier to Israel's agreeing to using the 1967 borders as the basis of negotiations.
Though none of these demands were met, by Clinton's characterization, the Palestinians did get the short timeframe they have long sought.
Though Netanyahu has said that talks could conclude quickly, Israel has resisted any deadlines on the process. The Palestinians, however, don't want to see an open-ended interim situation and have long pressed for a brief negotiating period.
US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who spoke to reporters following Clinton's announcement, declined to describe the one-year timeline as a deadline when pressed. Asked specifically whether it was a deadline, Mitchell responded, "We believe it can be done within a year and that is our objective."
He also said that the terms of reference would be sorted out by the participating parties, despite Palestinian desires that there be firm terms of reference for the negotiations.
"Only the parties can determine the terms of reference and basis for negotiations, and they will do so when they meet and discuss these matters," Mitchell said, indicating that applied to the sequencing of final status issues as well. "All permanent status issues will be on the table. It will be for the parties themselves to decide the manner by which they should be addressed."
Mitchell did, however, say that the US would be ready to provide bridging proposals if necessary.
"We will be active and sustained partners," he said. "As necessary and appropriate, we will offer bridging proposals. But I repeat: This is a direct bilateral negotiation between the parties with our assistance and with the assistance of our friends and allies."
The Quartet of the US, UN, EU and Russia, however, made a statement Friday that provided some of the frameworks sought by the Palestinians.
In endorsing direct talks, the Quartet expressed support for "the pursuit of a just, lasting and comprehensive regional peace as envisaged in the Madrid terms of reference, Security Council resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative."
Those documents, though, are filled with configurations that Israel has objected to. While Jerusalem embraced Clinton's announcement, it has remained silent on the Quartet statement, with which it has reservations.
Instead, the response of the Prime Minister's Office only mentioned the US invitation for direct talks.
"The prime minister has been calling for direct negotiations for the past year and a half," his statement said. "He was pleased with the American clarification that the talks would be without preconditions."
Several Jewish organizations, ranging from the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to J Street and Americans for Peace Now, also welcomed the move to direct talks.
In addition, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and American Task Force on Palestine issued a joint statement upon Friday's announcement, calling for serious investment from both parties.
"Both sides must take concrete steps in the short term to instill greater mutual confidence in this process and to demonstrate resolve to stay at the negotiating table as long as it takes to achieve an agreement," the statement read. "Israelis and Palestinians have suffered for far too long. It is time to make peace."
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=185447
------------------------------------------
8/20/10
Ha'aretz: "Netanyahu welcomes renewal of direct peace talks with Palestinians"
U.S. announcement of resumption of direct peace talks between Israel, Palestinians lauded by some, met with caution by others.
By Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Service and News Agencies
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday accepted a U.S. invitation to direct peace talks with Palestinians, his office said.
"We are coming to the talks with a genuine desire to reach a peace agreement between the two peoples that will protect Israel's national security interests, foremost of which is security," a statement said.
The statement said Netanyahu welcomed the U.S. invitation of the United States to begin direct negotiations without preconditions.
Netanyahu has been calling for direct negotiations for the past year and a half, it said. The Israeli leader "was pleased with the American clarification that the talks would be without preconditions."
Israel wanted serious and comprehensive talks, it said. "Reaching an agreement is a difficult challenge but is possible."
Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev told CNN news that Israel does not want "talks for the sake of talks."
"We know that the issues on the table are tough. We don't want negotiations just to drag on."
The Palestinian leadership on Friday also accepted the U.S. invitation for face-to-face peace talks with Israel, a senior Palestinian official said.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organization, was speaking after an emergency meeting of the body's executive committee in Ramallah.
He said any failure by Israel to fully halt settlement building on Israeli-occupied land where the Palestinians aim to found a state would endanger the talks.
Meanwhile, the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip rejected the planned peace talks, calling them "a new attempt to deceive our people."
Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the Islamist group, said in a statement that the invite was "useless and will bring us back to zero without achieving any results."
The announcement of a resumption of direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians was widely lauded by Israel advocacy groups and U.S. Jewish leaders, who praised President Barack Obama and the administration's work toward bringing both parties back to the negotiating table, but warned of the tough road ahead.
"Direct talks are not an end in themselves," said Americans for Peace Now President and CEO Debra DeLee. "The Obama Administration must now live up to its pledge to hold both parties accountable for their behavior. The stakes are high. Failure could bring about a new round of bloodshed and jeopardize American interests."
The pro-Israel lobby group, American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), released a statement welcoming the renewal of direct talks, but called on the Palestinian Authority to "abandon its longstanding attempts to avoid making difficult choices at the negotiating table and cease incitement against Israel at home and abroad."
"Now it is time for the Palestinians and the Arab States to grasp Israel's outstretched hand and match the Jewish state's unyielding commitment to peace with actions of their own," the AIPAC statement said.
The liberal Israel advocacy group J Street warned that these talks could be the last opportunity to save the two-state solution.
"The window of opportunity for progress is brief and closing. We believe Israel's future as a Jewish, democratic home, not to mention vital American interests in the region, hang in the balance," Hadar Susskind, J Street's Vice President for Policy and Strategy said.
Tweet
Email a friend
feed
twitter
facebook
Leave a comment