Israel, Palestinians to Seek Compromises `Framework'
Israel, Palestinians to Seek Compromises 'Framework'
Jason Reed-Pool/Getty Images
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, left, shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before holding direct peace talks at the State Department in Washington.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, left, shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before holding direct peace talks at the State Department in Washington. Photographer: Jason Reed-Pool/Getty Images
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of his “good intentions” while sticking to demands for an end to West Bank settlement building as peace talks got under way.
Both leaders signaled their willingness to concede some ground in opening remarks at the State Department in Washington. Abbas said, “Security is vital for both of us and we would do nothing to undermine our security and your security.”
“President Abbas, I’m fully aware and I respect your people’s desire for sovereignty,” Netanyahu said. “I’m convinced that it’s possible to reconcile that desire with Israel’s need for security.”
After a 21-month standstill, President Barack Obama persuaded Abbas and Netanyahu to return to the negotiating table. He has asked both leaders to pursue a deal within a year on all security and territorial issues at stake.
The issue of Israeli building in areas the Palestinians claim as their own has become a sticking point. Netanyahu said he wants the issue to be discussed only when negotiators begin work on core issues, such as the borders of a future Palestinian state.
Netanyahu said today both sides had to make “mutual and painful” concessions if peace talks were to succeed.
“By being here today you each have taken an important step toward freeing your people from the shackles of history that we cannot change,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in the formal start of talks. “I know the decision to sit at this table was not easy.”
Borders of Future State
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 held bilateral meetings yesterday with four Middle Eastern leaders: Netanyahu, Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah. The leaders then came together at a pre-dinner appearance at which they took turns speaking about their expectations for the talks.
“Our goal is a two-state solution that ends the conflict and ensures the rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians,” Obama said yesterday in the White House Rose Garden, flanked by Clinton and her Middle East envoy, former Senator George Mitchell.
Hamas Attacks
Talks suffered an early setback in the aftermath of deadly attacks by the military wing of Hamas Palestinian militants. Two Israelis were injured yesterday near the West Bank city of Ramallah, the second assault in as many days claimed by Hamas. Two days ago, the group said it shot to death four Israelis, including a pregnant woman, near a West Bank settlement.
The killings, denounced by all parties, were described by Netanyahu, Abbas and Obama as an attempt to scuttle negotiations. Abbas said they “disrupt the political process” while Obama warned that “enemies will do everything they can to derail” the peace effort.
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.
“Hamas will try to spoil things, but I don’t think there is any ambiguity on which side the negotiators are on,” said David Makovsky, a fellow at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy and co-author of a book on Middle East peacemaking with Obama’s adviser on the region, Dennis Ross.
The issue of Israeli housing construction on lands claimed by the Palestinians may yet interfere with the talks. Mubarak insisted yesterday that it is “a priority to completely freeze all these activities until the entire negotiating process comes to a successful end.”
Mubarak’s spokesman, Soliman Awaad, told reporters that Egypt would understand if Abbas abandoned the talks should Israel follow through with a plan to lift a moratorium on settlement building after it expires on Sept. 26.
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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