Israel, Palestinians to Seek Compromises `Framework'
Netanyahu, Abbas Vow to Meet Again
Hazem Bader/AFP/Getty Images
An Israeli soldier holds his weapon at a flying checkpoint.
An Israeli soldier holds his weapon at a flying checkpoint. Photographer: Hazem Bader/AFP/Getty Images
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to resume peace talks in two weeks even as a dispute over West Bank settlement building threatens to undercut the effort.
Both men began direct negotiations yesterday by pledging support for a one-year goal set by President Barack Obama to settle Israeli-Palestinian differences. The leaders resolved to work on an outline of “the fundamental compromises” needed to end the conflict, Middle East envoy George Mitchell said after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton opened the talks.
“By being here today you each have taken an important step toward freeing your people from the shackles of a history that we cannot change and moving toward a future of peace and dignity that only you can create,” Clinton told the two delegations at the State Department.
Looming over their next face-to-face session is the Sept. 26 expiration of the Israeli freeze on construction in areas claimed by the Palestinians. Abbas left Washington vowing to break off negotiations unless there is an extension.
That obstacle cast a shadow over a first round of talks that made little headway in confronting other disputes such as the status of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.
“If Israel continues its settlement enterprise, that would be the end of the negotiations,” said Husam Zumlot, a spokesman for Abbas, in Ramallah, the West Bank. “That is the Palestinian position, which the president has explained beforehand and during the talks with Mr. Netanyahu.”
Egyptian Pressure
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak also pressed publicly in Washington for maintaining the construction moratorium. Netanyahu said he wants the issue to be discussed only when negotiators begin work on issues where there is more common ground, such as the borders of a future Palestinian state.
“From both sides there’s a lot of skepticism that the other is ready to give up,” said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “I wouldn’t say this is a stupid charade, but I also wouldn’t say this is the show.”
Starting their first negotiations after a 21-month impasse, both leaders signaled their willingness to cede some ground. Abbas said he had “good intentions” and promised “we would do nothing to undermine our security and your security.” For his part, Netanyahu called Abbas his “partner in peace” and said he respected the Palestinian people’s “desire for sovereignty.”
The leaders plan to meet next Sept. 14-15 in the Middle East with Clinton and Mitchell in attendance.
Early Setback
Talks suffered an early setback in the wake of attacks by the military wing of Hamas Palestinian militants that killed four Israelis, including a pregnant woman, near a West Bank settlement.
Hamas, an Islamic movement, and Abbas’s Fatah party, which controls the West Bank, are rivals. Hamas, which refuses to seek peace with Israel, is considered a terrorist group by the U.S. and the European Union for its bombings and other deadly violence against Israel.
In light of that provocation, both leaders passed a first step by keeping with the talks, according to Martin Indyk, who served as U.S. ambassador to Israel for President Bill Clinton. The next test will be if they can resolve the settlements issue before the moratorium expires, he said.
Netanyahu said yesterday that both sides had to make “mutual and painful” concessions if peace talks were to succeed.
Mitchell, a former U.S. senator who helped to mediate peace efforts in Northern Ireland, described the task ahead in a briefing.
‘Deep’ Differences
“The differences are many, they are deep, they are serious and it will take serious good-faith negotiations, sincerity on both sides, a willingness to make concessions on both sides, if an agreement can be reached,” Mitchell said.
The leaders briefly discussed “issues of substance,” said Mitchell, who added that the talks “must be kept private and treated with utmost sensitivity.”
Apart from settlements, other issues where disagreements persist include deciding the borders of a future Palestinian state, settling the rights of Palestinian refugees who want to return to their former homes, the status of Jerusalem, which both sides claim as a capital, and security arrangements for Israel.
Obama, who said he was “cautiously hopeful” about the talks, will try to succeed where his predecessors failed in keeping both sides talking to each other.
Palestinians and Israelis held direct talks before in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, and, most recently from November 2007 through late 2008.
Obama told French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday that he believed the Israelis and Palestinians are committed to achieving progress, according to a White House statement.
To contact the reporters on this story: Nicole Gaouette in Washington at ngaouette@bloomberg.net; Flavia Krause-Jackson in Washington at fjackson@bloomberg.net
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