palestinians

Fayyad Crosses Israel With Boycott of Settler Goods From Wine to Scrubpads

by on June 8, 2010

By Daniel Williams June 8 (Bloomberg) — Palestinian inspectors were on the hunt for goods in West Bank stores made in Israeli settlements, and metal scouring pads with no labeled place of origin caught their attention. “You better find out where these came from,” said one man, who slapped a “No settlement products” sticker on the door of the Riviera Palace Mall Grocery Store in Ramallah. “They might be from them.” The inspectors were conducting a campaign organized by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad , known until a few months ago for trying to prepare Palestinians for statehood through gradual political and economic change. Now he is photographed tossing contraband goods onto bonfires . His strategic shift includes an effort to persuade Palestinians not to work in the Israeli enclaves, which sell $200 million worth of products a year in the West Bank and Gaza, according to the Palestinian Government Media Center, and “stifle” economic development, Fayyad has said. The campaign will continue until Palestinian homes are “empty of settlement goods,” he told reporters May 27 in Ramallah. “He is creating his own nationalist credentials,” said Mahdi Abdul Hadi , director of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs in Jerusalem. “He is filling an action gap.” Fresh Approach Fayyad’s efforts are a fresh approach to the conflict with Israel, Abdul Hadi said. Appointed prime minister in 2007, Fayyad, 58, hadn’t taken a position on how Palestinians should resist Israel until the boycott. Instead, he focused on stabilizing areas under his control, including developing a police force and central bank. He has also invested $100 million in schools and community centers, according to Ghassan Khatib , director of the Palestinian media center in Ramallah. Yasser Arafat , the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization who died in 2004, maintained that the olive branch of negotiation could coexist with the weaponry of armed action. Peaceful protest is the better route for Fayyad, a former World Bank economist and Palestinian representative to the International Monetary Fund, Khatib said. “The idea is to promote nonviolent resistance,” he said. Fayyad wasn’t available for an interview, despite repeated requests to his staff. ‘Campaign of Incitement’ Israel sees Fayyad’s strategy differently. The boycott is “part of a continuous planned and budgeted campaign of incitement,” Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said May 2. The Yesha Council, which represents some 300,000 Israeli West Bank settlers, has called it “economic terrorism.” Fayyad had to augment his administrative efforts with some form of resistance, partly because his emphasis on government and economic development might imply that Palestinians accept their current situation, said Nasser al-Qudwa, a former Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations and member of the ruling Fatah party. Fayyad is a political independent. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “could interpret Fayyad’s institutional building as surrender,” al-Qudwa said. “This is dangerous territory.” U.S. President Barack Obama ’s administration is sponsoring indirect, and so far inconclusive, negotiations between the two sides. Hamas in Gaza Fayyad administers the West Bank and its 2 million Palestinians. The Gaza Strip, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, is ruled by Hamas, an Islamic party and militia that won parliamentary elections in 2006 and drove out Fatah security forces in 2007 in a power struggle. Israel, the U.S. and European Union consider Hamas a terrorist organization. Israel has built about 100 settlements in the West Bank since the late 1960s. Another 100 embryonic settlements, which Israel calls outposts, have sprung up during the past decade. The International Committee of the Red Cross says they breach the Fourth Geneva Convention governing actions on occupied territory, and Obama has said they aren’t legitimate. Israel says settlements don’t fall under the convention because the territory wasn’t recognized as belonging to anyone before the 1967 Middle East war, which Israel won, and therefore isn’t occupied. Private Sector Help Fayyad’s campaign to root out the goods they produce is paid for mostly by Palestinian businesses through the Karama National Fund, a government task force created to enforce the boycott. By enlisting the private sector, Fayyad is challenging the notion that wearing a business suit is incompatible with battling Israel, said Samir Hulileh , chief executive officer of Palestine Development and Investment Ltd. , a West Bank investment firm. “He is trying to make business and resistance compatible,” Hulileh said. Palestinians boycotted some products as part of a 1987-1992 civil uprising designed to pressure Israel into leaving the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Economy Ministry has no data on the effectiveness of Fayyad’s campaign, said Karama director Omar M. Kabha. While Fayyad also wants the 25,000 Palestinian laborers who work in settlements to quit, Kabha said it will be difficult unless the Palestinian economy can provide alternative employment. “As we build our own industries, we hope to employ these workers,” he said. Inspectors began fanning out May 18 in towns across the West Bank, hanging posters showing an accusative finger demanding that Palestinians stop buying settler goods. Fifty settlement companies are listed in a catalogue they take door- to-door, making items ranging from construction material and cookies to bath salts and wine. “I don’t think I have any settler products here,” Riviera Palace owner Sultan Afori said as inspectors scanned his shelves. “If I did, okay, get rid of them. No problem. Throw them away.” To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Williams in Ramallah at dwilliams41@bloomberg.net .

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American Citizen Was Shot Dead During Israeli Raid on Flotilla, U.S. Says

by on June 3, 2010

By Nicole Gaouette June 3 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. confirmed that an American citizen, identified as 19-year-old Furkan Dogan, was killed by multiple gunshots during the Israeli raid on a flotilla carrying activists attempting to run a blockade of the Gaza Strip. State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said the U.S. has made no decision on a response to Dogan’s death. “We take the health and welfare of American citizens seriously, it’s our fundamental responsibility,” Crowley told reporters today in Washington. Israeli commandos on May 31 raided six ships carrying humanitarian aid workers and activists trying to break Israel’s blockade, in place since 2007. The operation, in which nine people died, has led to international criticism, demands for an investigation and for an end to restrictions on sea traffic. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may ease the blockade and allow an international force to check aid coming on ships, Israel’s Channel Two television news said today. Netanyahu has defended the Israeli military action as necessary to protect Israel by preventing weapons from being shipped to militant Islamic group Hamas, which has run Gaza since 2007. “Our responsibility is to examine every ship going to Gaza, to stop the weapons and to let other cargo enter,” Netanyahu said yesterday. “If we don’t do that the result is going to be an Iranian port in Gaza.” There is widespread public support in Israel for enforcing the blockade of Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S., Israel and European Union. Main Ship The violence during the raid took place on the Mavi Marmara, one of six ships in the flotilla. The other five vessels were intercepted without violence. The decision to use military force on the sixth ship had to do with its size, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren , said yesterday. “The particular ship that did encounter the violent incident was simply too large to stop by nonviolent means,” Oren said on National Public Radio. “The others ships were not, and that is one of the reasons they were towed safely to port.” The Mavi Marmara was carrying 581 passengers, about 300 of them Turkish and the remainder from about 30 other countries including Greece, the U.K. and Algeria, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said on May 31. Arinc accused Israel of “piracy” for boarding the vessels in international waters. New York Native Dogan was born in Troy, New York, according to Crowley. The Dogan family now has his body, which is en route to their hometown in Turkey for burial, Crowley said. Another American man sustained injuries in the flotilla raid, Crowley said, without providing details. “We’re evaluating the facts as best we can,” Crowley said. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said this week that the situation in the Gaza Strip is “unsustainable and unacceptable” and that “ultimately the solution to this must be found in an agreement on a two-state solution negotiated” between Israel and the Palestinians. The flotilla raid and the uproar surrounding it haven’t affected talks between Palestinians and Israelis, Crowley said. U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell , speaking in Bethlehem, said there should be a renewed focus on the talks. To contact the reporter on this story: Nicole Gaouette in Washington at ngaouette@bloomberg.net

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Erakat Says U.S.-Mediated Indirect Peace Talks With Israel `Have Started’

May 9, 2010

By Gwen Ackerman and Saud Abu Ramadan May 9 (Bloomberg) — U.S.-mediated peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority “have started,” senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat said, ending a breakdown that lasted almost a year and a half. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will act as a chief negotiator and all core issues, such as Jerusalem, borders and refugees will be on the table during the four months of indirect negotiations, Erakat said in remarks published today by the official Wafa news agency. His comments followed a second meeting between Abbas and U.S. envoy George Mitchell in as many days. Mitchell was expected to return to Washington later today. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed yesterday’s decision by the Palestinians to resume talks, saying he hoped they would lead to direct negotiations. “In the long term, it is impossible to arrive at decisions and agreements on critical issues, such as security and national interests, without sitting together in the same room,” he said at today’s Cabinet meeting. Talks between Israel and the Palestinians stalled in December 2008 after Israel sent forces into the Gaza Strip in an operation the government said aimed to stop cross-border rocket attacks. Abbas had linked participation in the talks to Israel’s agreeing to freeze plans to build new homes for Jews in east Jerusalem, captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war and sought by the Palestinians as the capital of a future state. Core Issues An Israeli official, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to give details of the negotiations, said Israel had agreed core issues such as Jerusalem, borders and refugees may be raised in the talks for preliminary discussion, on the understanding that any solutions would be found in direct talks. Netanyahu adviser Yitzhak Molcho will be sitting with Mitchell during the indirect talks, the official added. “In a certain sense, proximity talks are mainly theater,” said Gerald Steinberg , a political scientist at Bar-Ilan University outside Tel Aviv. “Certainly nobody expects proximity talks to lead to anything substantial.” Opposition and Kadima party leader Tzipi Livni , the former foreign minister who was a chief negotiator with the Palestinians under the previous government, called the indirect talks a test of Netanyahu’s readiness to make decisions for peace. “I hope these talks will have content, that they will be true talks, and I hope we will not miss this opportunity,” Livni said today in an e-mailed statement. Talks Stalled U.S. efforts to initiate indirect discussions stalled in March when Israel approved a plan to build 1,600 new homes for Jews in east Jerusalem during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden . U.S. officials criticized the plans and Palestinian officials said they were reconsidering their participation in the talks. Netanyahu, while publicly saying construction in Jerusalem will continue, may have slowed projects in disputed areas of the city. The planning committee responsible for approving construction in Jerusalem , which gave the go-ahead for the building plans in March, met last week for the first time since Biden’s visit. No building plans related to east Jerusalem were on the agenda, committee member and Jerusalem Councilman Yair Gabbay said in a phone interview last week. To contact the reporter on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net Saud Abu Ramadan in Jerusalem at sramadan@bloomberg.net

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Netanyahu Says He Will Know in Days If Talks With Palestinians to Proceed

April 25, 2010

By Gwen Ackerman April 25 (Bloomberg) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today he will know soon if the peace process will move forward, after he met with U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell . Mitchell had “positive and productive talks” with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in his three-day visit, an e-mailed statement from the U.S. Embassy said. The visit was the latest attempt to get Israel and the Palestinians to agree to U.S.- mediated indirect talks. “Israel wants the peace process to start immediately,” Netanyahu said today in comments broadcast on Army Radio. “The U.S. wants the process to start immediately, and I can only hope the Palestinians want to start the process immediately.” The Israeli leader said he will know “in the next few days” if negotiations will resume. Talks between Israel and the Palestinians stalled in December 2008 at the start of an Israeli military operation in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip that Israel said was aimed at stopping rocket attacks on its southern towns and cities. U.S. efforts to get the sides to resume negotiations have been stymied by Israeli plans to build 1,600 new homes for Jews in a part of Jerusalem captured from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East War and which the Palestinians seek as the capital of a future state. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded the building plans be frozen before indirect talks can begin. Netanyahu has said Israel will continue to build in Jerusalem. Mitchell, who also met with Abbas, plans to return to the region next week, the embassy statement said. To contact the reporter on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net

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Netanyahu Says Israel’s Decision on East Jerusalem Housing Was `Harmful’

March 14, 2010

By Gwen Ackerman and Calev Ben-David March 14 (Bloomberg) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called last week’s announcement of approval to build new homes in east Jerusalem during Vice President Joe Biden ’s visit “harmful” and “unfortunate.” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Netanyahu to lodge “strong objections” to what she said was “a deeply negative signal,” State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley told reporters on March 12 in Washington. The Israeli leader was “surprised” by the condemnation, having thought his apology to Biden was sufficient, the daily Haaretz reported yesterday, citing unidentified officials in Netanyahu’s office. “There was an unfortunate incident carried out in good faith, that was harmful and certainly should not have happened,” Netanyahu said in comments to ministers ahead of today’s weekly Cabinet meeting. Biden’s visit was intended to make further progress toward the start of indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians, announced just before his arrival. Instead, Israel’s approval of 1,600 homes in east Jerusalem prompted the Palestinians to reconsider their participation in U.S.-backed negotiations. Palestinians seek east Jerusalem, captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed in a move not internationally recognized, as the capital of a future state. “The announcement on the new construction was interpreted by Washington as a breach of faith and a breaking of the rules of the game,” said Avraham Ben-Zvi, professor of international relations at Haifa University. “It is unfortunate for Israel in terms of political impact.” New Committee Netanyahu decided last night to form a committee headed by the director-generals of the Housing Ministry and the Jerusalem municipality to look into the events, Netanyahu’s spokesman, Nir Hefez, said in a statement. The committee will establish procedures to prevent a repeat, it said. Israel, which announced a partial 10-month construction freeze in the West Bank in November, has said the building halt doesn’t include Jerusalem. U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell , the former U.S. senator and peace mediator in Northern Ireland, is scheduled to return to the region next week to get the indirect talks on track. To contact the reporters on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net .

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Biden Visits Middle East as Israel, Palestinians Agree to Indirect Talks

March 8, 2010

By Gwen Ackerman and Jonathan Ferziger March 8 (Bloomberg) — Vice President Joe Biden began a trip to the Middle East as the U.S. announced that Israel and the Palestinians accepted a plan to start indirect talks that analysts say are unlikely to lead to a breakthrough. Biden landed at Ben-Gurion International Airport as U.S envoy George Mitchell clinched understandings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to participate in discussions aimed at reviving direct peace talks. “We’ve begun to discuss the structure and scope of these talks and I will return to the region next week to continue our discussions,” Mitchell said in a statement released in Washington today. Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have been frozen since the end of 2008, when Israel launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip that it said was to stop Hamas from firing rockets. Last week, Arab states endorsed a U.S. bid to break the ice by mediating a series of indirect talks that are designed to pave the way for direct negotiations. Hours before Biden’s arrival, Israel disclosed that it had approved the construction of 112 new homes in a West Bank settlement, drawing condemnation from the Palestinian Authority, which called the action “provocative.” Mitchell asked “the parties, and all concerned, to refrain from any statements or actions which may inflame tensions or prejudice the outcome of these talks.” ‘Dire’ Situation U.S.-led efforts to revive talks have foundered on the issue of West Bank settlement building, with Netanyahu announcing a partial halt and Abbas demanding a freeze of all construction. The fact that it has taken more than a year for Mitchell to arrange indirect talks indicates how “dire” the situation has become between the two sides, said Jonathan Spyer , a political scientist at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, near Tel Aviv. The mediation effort is a “pleasant illusion” to avoid confronting the fact that the “positions are irreconcilable,” Spyer said. “It’s kicking the ball down the road for a few more years when someone else will have to deal with the problem.” President Barack Obama raised Arab hopes that the U.S. would apply pressure to Israel with a June 4 speech in Cairo in which he called for a total settlement freeze. Arab leaders expressed disappointment five months later when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged that a complete construction halt is unrealistic and praised Netanyahu’s proposal for a limited 10-month freeze as “unprecedented.” ‘Proximity Talks’ The format of indirect negotiations enables Palestinians to engage with Israel even though Abbas made a public commitment not to hold talks until all settlement construction is stopped. The foreign ministers of Arab states agreed in Cairo last week to give the “proximity talks” four months and call for an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting if they fail. “The Americans, the Israelis and the Palestinians are afraid that a continuation of the stalemate might lead to a new round of violence in the near future,” said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist at Gaza Strip’s Al-Azhar University. The indirect talks are a way “to keep things under control for the foreseeable future.” He said there was “no hope whatsoever that these proximity talks will be able to bridge differences or reach conclusive results.” Israel said it had approved construction of 112 new homes at the West Bank settlement of Beitar Illit. Defense Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror said in a telephone interview that the building didn’t violate Netanyahu’s temporary construction freeze because “this is part of a project that had previously received approval.” Security Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib said the announcement of new settlement construction is “like putting a stick in the wheels of reviving the stalled peace process” and that “the Palestinian Authority considers the Israeli decision provocative.” “The diplomatic process is not a game, it’s the real thing, and it’s rooted first of all in security,” Netanyahu said in remarks broadcast on Army Radio. Abbas is willing to negotiate a West Bank land swap with Israel to set the borders of an independent state, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said today. In past negotiations, Israel proposed keeping areas of the West Bank close to the 1967 borders where there is a large concentration of settlements, and in exchange giving the Palestinians land inside Israel. Biden will also visit Jordan during his trip this week to the region, the White House said yesterday. To contact the reporters on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net Jonathan Ferziger in Jerusalem at jferziger@bloomberg.net

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Europe Presses Israel to Halt Settlement Construction as Ashton Visits

March 6, 2010

By James G. Neuger March 6 (Bloomberg) — The European Union pressed Israel to halt settlement construction as planned indirect talks with the Palestinians gave a new flicker of hope to the Middle East peace process. With U.S.-mediated talks slated to start in coming days, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she will travel to the region to keep the pressure on both sides. Europe’s priority is “supporting the Palestinian Authority particularly in what I would describe as state building,” Ashton told reporters today after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Cordoba, Spain. Peace talks ground to a halt after Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip in late 2008. While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered to partially freeze the West Bank settlements, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said only a full freeze would lead him back to the negotiating table. “This continuation of the settlements is really something that stands in the way,” Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said. “This provocation has to stop.” Under the “proximity talks” at as yet undisclosed locations, U.S. envoy George Mitchell will shuttle between meetings with the Israeli and Palestinian sides in order to reopen communications channels. Arab states on March 3 endorsed that formula, which allows Abbas to sidestep a vow to boycott negotiations as long as Israeli construction on the West Bank continues. ‘Two to Tango’ In the absence of progress in four months, the Arab League ministers said they would make a new appeal to the United Nations Security Council. Israeli police clashed with Palestinians at a Jerusalem holy site yesterday after officers said stones were hurled at Jewish worshippers in the area. Injuries were reported on both sides. “It takes two to tango,” Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb said. “If there is no willingness for peace or a settlement on the Israeli side or the Palestinian side, we might as well be here in 10 years talking about the same stuff.” Ashton said she has asked Israel to make it possible for her to visit Gaza, home to 1.4 million Palestinians. Gaza is ruled by the Islamic Hamas movement and is under an Israeli economic blockade. The trip starting March 14 marks Ashton’s highest-profile diplomatic venture since taking on the EU post in November. National ministers in Cordoba defended her against criticisms that that she hasn’t been active enough. “I’m not here to raise questions about Lady Ashton,” German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said. “Quite the contrary: I want her to succeed.” Discussions also started over the shape of a European foreign service headed by Ashton, bringing together as many as 7,000 EU and national officials. The EU will start setting up the service later this year. To contact the reporter on this story: James G. Neuger in Cordoba, Spain at jneuger@bloomberg.net

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Israel Will Build Almost 700 Homes in Jerusalem, Prompting U.S. Criticism

December 28, 2009

By Gwen Ackerman Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) — Israel plans to build almost 700 homes in three areas of Jerusalem outside the city’s 1967 border to help alleviate a housing shortage, the Housing Ministry said today. The decision to add 692 new homes brings to 1,600 the number approved by Israel in the past six weeks in parts of the city captured from Jordan in the 1967 war. The U.S. condemned the plan in a statement from a presidential spokesman. Israeli construction in east Jerusalem, which Palestinians seek as a capital of a future state, has been criticized by the U.S. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a 10- month construction freeze in West Bank settlements last month, while excluding Jerusalem from the move. “We are not looking to goad the U.S.,” Housing Minister Ariel Atias said on Israel Army Radio. “All of the governments of Israel have built in Jerusalem for the past 20 years. Not one government has frozen construction in the city.” The U.S. opposes new Israeli building in East Jerusalem, Robert Gibbs , President Barack Obama ’s press secretary, said in a statement today. “Neither party should engage in efforts or take actions that could unilaterally pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations,” Gibbs said. Construction Consequences When Israel announced plans last month to build 900 new homes in Gilo, an area outside the 1967 boundaries, Obama said settlement building could have “dangerous” consequences. Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said that the road-map peace plan sponsored by the U.S., the United Nations, Europe and Russia demanded Israeli building stop in all areas where Palestinians sought a state. “The United States must understand that the current policy of the Israeli government is to back settlement-building and not peace,” Erakat said in an e-mailed statement. After capturing East Jerusalem, Israel annexed it as part of its capital in a move that was never internationally recognized. Netanyahu has said that Jerusalem won’t be divided and will remain under Israeli sovereignty. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has rejected the freeze announced by Netanyahu as insufficient and has said he won’t return to the negotiating table unless Israel announces a total halt to all West Bank settlement construction. To contact the reporter on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net .

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Netanyahu Departs for Washington With Middle East Peace Effort in Disarray

November 8, 2009

By Jonathan Ferziger Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed for Washington today after a round of diplomacy that may have narrowed gaps with President Barack Obama while slowing peace efforts with the Palestinians. Netanyahu will give a speech Monday to an annual conference of North American Jewish organizations. He did not respond when asked by reporters aboard his plane whether he would meet with Obama during the trip. The visit comes just a week after Netanyahu won praise from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for his “unprecedented” proposal to limit West Bank settlement expansion to completion of around 2,500 new homes. That was a turnaround from the U.S. position last May that Israel must freeze all settlement building, and one that left Palestinian leaders upset. “This isn’t easy for the Palestinians to absorb because Obama made such an extreme effort early on to improve the U.S. relationship with the Arab world,” said Dan Schueftan , director of the National Security Studies Center at Haifa University. “It’s very tricky and Obama doesn’t want to look too cozy with Netanyahu right now, but eventually they’ll work something out.” Palestinian leaders are insisting on an end to all settlement construction as a precursor to resuming peace talks. By the end of the week, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas withdrew his candidacy for re-election and others within his Fatah party warned of a new outbreak of violence. ‘Settlements or Peace’ “Israel has a choice: settlements or peace,” said Abbas’s top negotiator, Saeb Erakat . Nabil Shaath , an aide to Abbas, said there was a risk of violence if Israel continues to build settlements. At Clinton’s meeting last week with Arab leaders in Marrakech, Morocco, which was overshadowed by her shift on settlements, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said the remarks had crippled the Middle East peace process. “Failure is in the atmosphere all over,” he said. Since then, the secretary of state and other administration officials have been backtracking, saying Palestinian advances in training security forces on the West Bank were also “unprecedented” and that Obama still considers Israeli settlements illegal. That wasn’t enough for Abbas, who spoke in a prime time televised address on Nov. 5 to tell Palestinians that he had “no desire” to run again for the presidency in elections scheduled for January. Meeting Agenda During his trip, Netanyahu will likely focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iran’s nuclear program, and a United Nations report that said Israel may have committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip. The prime minister had no scheduled meetings with Obama, Clinton or other senior administration officials, according to his spokesman Mark Regev , who spoke before the departure. The only item on his agenda in Washington was the speech to the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities, an umbrella group for North American Jewish organizations. Netanyahu is expected to stop in Paris on his way back from the U.S., according to the prime minister’s office. Regev said no meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy has been scheduled. Schueftan suggested the lack of clarity over Netanyahu’s movements this week derives from the raw feelings left by Clinton’s Middle East tour. “Obama had a slow learning curve but now he understands that Netanyahu couldn’t freeze settlement completely even if he wanted to,” Schueftan said. “It’s going to take some time for the Palestinians to get used to this but I don’t think it’s going to shut off the peace process.” To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv at jferziger@bloomberg.net

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Clinton Detours to Cairo to Calm Arab Concerns, Press for Mideast Peace

November 3, 2009

By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will seek to give a push to the Middle East peace process and allay Arab concerns about the U.S. role in talks today with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak . “Mubarak is a very adroit reader of the parties” who has “a very good working relationship” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters traveling with Clinton, who arrived in Cairo yesterday after four days of intensive discussions with leaders in the region. She wants to see Mubarak “face to face” to discuss pushing the stalled peace process forward, Crowley said. Clinton’s detour to Egypt before returning to Washington reflects President Barack Obama’s push to engage all parties to press Israel and the Palestinians back to the bargaining table. While Obama has made a two-state solution a priority, the gap between the two sides requires energy to keep the process alive and expectations are low for a breakthrough anytime soon, officials say. “Without this effort, it’s likely that things would go from difficult to worse,” Crowley said of Clinton’s consultations since Oct. 31 with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Abu Dhabi, Netanyahu in Jerusalem and Arab leaders at a conference in Marrakech, Morocco. Pitfalls of Waiting Waiting for perfect conditions “is never a good thing,” Crowley said. “Sometimes the effort has an impact in and of itself.” Clinton met with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman in Cairo last night to discuss his efforts to encourage a unity government between rival Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, and with Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit . She also conferred in Cairo with U.S. special envoy George Mitchell , who has been meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders and King Abdullah of Jordan, the only Arab state aside from Egypt to recognize Israel. Clinton suggested yesterday in Morocco that she “could have been clearer” when she hailed as “unprecedented” a proposal from Netanyahu to limit, not freeze, the expansion of Israeli settlements on the West Bank. The comments, during her Oct. 31 visit to Jerusalem, sparked an outcry from Arab leaders. “President Obama was absolutely clear,” she said in an interview taped with Al Jazeera before she left Marrakech. “He wanted a halt to all settlement activity. And perhaps those of us who work with him and for him could have been clearer in communicating that that is his policy, that is what we’re committed to doing.” Palestinian State Clinton said she “was the first American associated with any administration to call for the establishment of a Palestinian state” 10 years ago. “A lot of people thought that was very radical; now there is consensus.” Tempering her earlier praise for Netanyahu’s offer, Clinton said at a Nov. 2 gathering of Arab and Group of Eight foreign ministers in Morocco that it “falls far short” of U.S. calls for a total settlement freeze. Steps to improve West Bank security by Palestinian Authority President Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad were also “unprecedented” and Israel “should reciprocate,” Clinton said. The decision to clarify her remarks underscores the Obama administration’s balancing act in nudging Israelis and Palestinians back to talks. Last May, Clinton said only a complete construction halt in the West Bank would be acceptable. In September after meeting Abbas and Netanyahu at the United Nations, Obama referred only to a “restraint” in settlements. Libyan Meeting Before leaving the Marrakech conference yesterday, Clinton met with Libyan Foreign Minister Musa Kusa, a former intelligence chief when the U.S. classified Libya as a state sponsor of terrorism. The countries normalized relations in 2003, and the U.S. has credited Kusa and Libyan intelligence with cooperating against al-Qaeda. Clinton and Kusa discussed Sudan, Darfur and counterterrorism, said Crowley, who attended the meeting. He said they didn’t raise the case of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi , the Lockerbie bomber whose August release from a Scottish prison to Libya angered families of the 270 airline-crash victims. “While the issue of Megrahi did not come up, our views on that have not changed and the Libyans understand” that “very well,” Crowley said. Before Clinton walked back her settlement remarks, Amre Moussa, secretary-general of the 22-member Arab League and a senior Egyptian diplomat, said he feared the peace process had been crippled. Arab Criticism “Failure is in the atmosphere all over,” he said. Clinton’s words left the impression that “Israel can get away with anything.” Clinton’s clarification didn’t allay the Arab League’s frustration over the apparent U.S. retreat from demanding a settlement freeze, Hisham Youssef, Moussa’s spokesman, said in a telephone interview yesterday. As recently as the 2007 peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, Israel committed to stopping settlements under the Bush administration’s 2003 “road map” for peace and must do so before talks can start, he said. Clinton’s revised remarks satisfied Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki , who told reporters in Marrakech his government was “happy that such a position was highlighted and brought back to the right line.” Clinton corrected herself in her Al Jazeera interview after aides pointed out she misspoke by saying the Camp David accords under her husband Bill Clinton’s administration would have achieved an Israeli capital in East Jerusalem. She meant a Palestinian capital. To contact the reporters on this story: Indira Lakshmanan in Cairo at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net

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Clinton Seeks to Prod Israelis, Palestinians to Table During Mideast Trip

October 30, 2009

By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan and Jonathan Ferziger Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has returned to the Middle East in a bid to prod Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table five weeks after President Barack Obama failed to kick-start peace talks. Clinton flew from Pakistan late yesterday to Abu Dhabi on the Persian Gulf, where she plans to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas . Late today, she will head to Israel for consultations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , who has resisted U.S. pressure to halt settlement construction in the West Bank as a gesture toward peacemaking with the Palestinians. The Mideast swing comes a week after Clinton reported to Obama that it is premature to resume formal Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. The Palestinians need to do more to stop incitement and prevent terror, and Israel needs to do more to improve the lives of the Palestinians, an administration official said Clinton told Obama. Obama had ordered a review of the peace effort after holding a three-way meeting with Abbas and Netanyahu Sept. 22 in New York. “We are going to continue down this road and do everything we can to clear away whatever concerns that the parties have, to actually get them into negotiations where they then can thrash out all of these difficult issues,” Clinton said in an interview with CNN before she left Pakistan. In Jerusalem, Netanyahu met yesterday with U.S. envoy George Mitchell to prepare for the Clinton meeting and said he hoped the secretary of state would enable Israelis and Palestinians to restart peace talks “as soon as possible.” Extended Diplomacy Still, Clinton may be anticipating extended diplomacy before the U.S. can show results. Abbas has said he won’t return to the negotiating table until Netanyahu backs a settlement freeze. “From the very beginning, the Obama administration set a goal of demonstrating progress in a Palestinian-Israeli peace track,” Gerald Steinberg , a Bar-Ilan University political scientist, said in a telephone interview. “If there can’t be progress, there can at least be lots of effort, which means more visits and more photo opportunities.” Palestinians have been losing faith in Obama’s peacemaking ability and in U.S. policies in the Mideast, according to a survey released Oct. 18 by the Jerusalem Media & Communications Center. Slightly less than 24 percent of those questioned said Obama could boost chances of peace, down from 35.4 percent who in June said they were optimistic about U.S. participation in the Mideast effort, according to the poll. ‘Some Kind of Gesture’ “I don’t think that Abbas will go back to the table without at least satisfying the issue of settlement expansion,” said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist at Al-Azhar University in the Gaza Strip. “There has to be some kind of gesture from Netanyahu, even if it’s just temporary.” Israelis and Palestinians are still fighting over the same issues since peace talks began through the 1993 Oslo accords at a White House ceremony presided over by former President Bill Clinton , Hillary Clinton’s husband. The agenda includes the future of Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the borders of a future Palestinian state. “I watched in the ‘90s as my husband just kept pushing and pushing and pushing and good things happened,” Hillary Clinton said in the CNN interview. “There wasn’t a final agreement but fewer people died, there were more opportunities for economic development, for trade, for exchanges. It had positive effects, even though it didn’t cross the finish line.” Iran Deal Clinton’s stopover in the Persian Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi comes after Iran demanded changes to a United Nations-brokered deal that would send Iranian enriched uranium to Russia for processing into nuclear fuel for a Tehran research reactor. The Iranian reaction cast doubts over wider talks to allay suspicions Iran is seeking the means to build a nuclear weapon. Netanyahu praised the offer made to Iran, according to an e-mailed statement from his office. The proposal “is a positive first step,” Netanyahu told Mitchell yesterday in Jerusalem. The United Arab Emirates, an oil-producing U.S. ally that hosts American military bases, is a trading partner for Iran, which ships three-quarters of its refined fuel imports through Emirati ports. The U.S. Congress is considering legislation aimed at cutting off gasoline deliveries to Iran, which relies on imports to meet a third of its refined fuel needs. Clinton plans to meet with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan during her visit. The crown prince, who is also deputy supreme commander of the U.A.E. armed forces, conferred with Obama at the White House in September. ‘No Coincidence’ “Clinton’s trip is no coincidence,” said Christopher Davidson , a Middle Eastern studies professor at Durham University in the U.K. “The U.A.E. has now become a major element in U.S. foreign policy because of Iran.” Dubai, the second-largest of the seven emirates in the U.A.E. after Abu Dhabi, also is a destination for Iranian investment and maintains trade and financial links. “Dubai is Iran’s main window to the global economy, and the U.S. is likely to press the U.A.E. to control Dubai’s relations with Iran,” said Davidson, author of “Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success,” published last year. To contact the reporters on this story: Indira Lakshmanan in Abu Dhabi at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net ; Jonathan Ferziger in Jerusalem at jferziger@bloomberg.net

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Clinton Tells Obama It’s Too Soon to Restart Mideast Peace Negotiations

October 22, 2009

By Janine Zacharia Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told President Barack Obama today that it’s still premature to restart peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Repeated meetings with Israeli, Palestinian and other Arab officials with Obama’s special envoy, former Senator George Mitchell , haven’t cleared several obstacles to resuming talks, Clinton told the president, according to an administration official who provided a summary of the White House session. The Palestinians need to do more to stop incitement and prevent terror, and Israel, while it has expressed a willingness to curtail settlement activity, needs to do more to improve the lives of the Palestinians, the official said Clinton told Obama. Clinton was at the White House to give Obama a progress report that he requested after the president brought Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas together in New York Sept. 22. The administration was seeking with that meeting to be able to announce the launch of talks on the fundamental issues that divide the two sides: the future of Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the borders of a future Palestinian state. The president had to settle for the more limited accomplishment of meeting with both leaders together for first time and extracting an agreement to keep talking about possible negotiations. In the absence of any progress, a growing number of Palestinians have lost faith in Obama’s peacemaking ability and in U.S. policies in the Middle East, a survey released Oct. 18 found. Slightly less than 24 percent of those questioned said Obama could boost chances of peace, down from 35.4 percent who in June said they were optimistic about the U.S. leader’s participation in the Middle East process, according to a survey by the Jerusalem Media & Communications Center. Mitchell is scheduled to return to the Middle East soon and Clinton will discuss the peace process during meetings with Arab foreign ministers in Morocco Nov. 2 and 3. To contact the reporter on this story: Janine Zacharia in Washington at jzacharia@bloomberg.net .

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Obama Says U.S. Won’t Accept Legitimacy of Israel’s West Bank Settlements

September 23, 2009

By Janine Zacharia Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama called Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegitimate a day after he praised Israel for showing restraint in their construction, a comment that had left Palestinians angry. “We continue to call on Palestinians to end incitement against Israel. And we continue to emphasize that America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements,” Obama said in a speech today before the United Nations General Assembly. Obama brought Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas together for a meeting yesterday in New York aimed at restarting negotiations on the fundamental issues that divide them: the future of Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the borders of a future Palestinian state. Instead, the president had to settle for the more limited accomplishment of meeting with both leaders together for the first time and extracting an agreement to keep talking about possible negotiations. In today’s speech, Obama set out the U.S. position and signaled a willingness to keep up pressure on Israel while calling on Arab leaders and others to show more effort. “The United States does Israel no favors when we fail to couple an unwavering commitment to its security with an insistence that Israel respect the legitimate claims and rights of the Palestinians,” Obama said. “And nations within this body do the Palestinians no favors when they choose vitriolic attacks against Israel over constructive willingness to recognize Israel’s legitimacy and its right to exist in peace and security,” he added. Envoy Stymied Obama’s Middle East envoy, former U.S. Senator George Mitchell , has for months been trying to win an Israeli settlement freeze in the West Bank, the core territory of a future Palestinian state, as a way of prodding the Palestinians to take steps on security. The concession also would persuade Arab states to normalize ties with Israel, according to the American strategy. Still, Israel and the U.S. remain divided on the nature of a settlement halt. Israel has announced the construction of 455 new homes in the West Bank and says it will finish construction on 2,500 others. To contact the reporter on this story: Janine Zacharia in New York at jzacharia@bloomberg.net .

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Obama Says Israel, Palestinians Must Act With Urgency to Get Talks Going

September 22, 2009

By Kate Andersen Brower and Jonathan Ferziger Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama said Israel and the Palestinians must act “with a sense of urgency” to restart the stalled the peace process. At the start of his first joint meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , Obama said his special envoy, George Mitchell , will meet with Palestinian and Israeli negotiators next week. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will report on the status of those efforts next month, he said in New York. “It is past time to stop talking about starting negotiations,” Obama said before talks that included the two leaders as well as senior officials from the U.S., Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Talks “must begin and begin soon.” Obama, who pledged to take a direct role in pursuing Middle East peace, is attempting to restart negotiations on the major issues that divide Israel and the Palestinians: territory, borders, the future of Jerusalem, and Palestinian refugees. He has so far hasn’t won substantial movement on either side. Obama said some progress has been made since he took office, adding, “we still have much further to go.” Settlements, Security Israelis have “facilitated greater freedom of movement for the Palestinians and discussed important steps to restrain settlement activity but they need to translate these discussions into real action,” he said. “Palestinians have strengthened their efforts on security but they need to do more to stop incitement and to move forward on negotiations,” Obama said. Netanyahu told reporters afterward that the meeting helps “break the ice.” Israeli negotiators are ready to meet with Mitchell and those talks will focus on how to restart the peace process. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Obama’s call for “restraint” on Israeli settlement construction, rather than a complete halt, is a “problem” that threatens to impede resumption of negotiations. “I happen to believe one reason why the political process has stumbled is because those requirements for success were ignored, including a halt to settlement activity,” he said. Low Expectations All three participants have downplayed talk of a breakthrough at today’s meeting. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said yesterday that there are no “grand expectations.” “You need patience,” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in response to a question as he an others entered the room at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. The leaders are in New York for the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly. Obama met with each separately for about 40 minutes before the three-way discussions. Netanyahu and Abbas didn’t make any public comments. “All of us know this will not be easy, but we are here today because we know it is the right thing to do,” Obama said. “I am committed to pressing ahead.” Domestic Pressures Netanyahu and Abbas face strong domestic pressure not to make any compromises while in New York. Netanyahu’s Likud party has long supported settlement building in the West Bank while opposing territorial compromises that would allow a Palestinian state there. Abbas faces opposition to compromise from the Islamic Hamas movement, which seized full control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Hamas leader Ismail Haniya criticized Abbas two days ago for agreeing to meet with Netanyahu in the U.S. Mkhaimar Abusada, professor of political science at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University, said, “Abbas will be in a very bad position if he goes back to the negotiating table without even getting a temporary freeze on settlement expansion.” Netanyahu and Obama have disagreed over settlements since they met at the White House in May and Obama called for a total construction freeze. Netanyahu has said that, while he is willing to negotiate over a Palestinian state in the West Bank, settlers should still be allowed to build new homes and schools in existing settlements to accommodate population growth. New Round of Talks Obama is bringing the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to Washington next week to meet with Mitchell. Mitchell left Jerusalem last week after failing to bridge the gaps enough to restart peace talks that were suspended nine months ago with Netanyahu’s election. “We’re now going to enter into an intensive and brief period of discussion” of talks aimed at breaking the deadlock, Mitchell said at a briefing afterward. “We’ll build on the work that was done today.” David Makovsky , a fellow at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy, said the three-way meeting is a “good first step.” “You obviously cannot have negotiations unless you can get Netanyahu and Abbas in the same room. With the ice broken, hopefully the diplomatic thaw is now possible,” said Makovsky, co-author of a book on Middle East peacemaking with Obama’s senior adviser on the region, Dennis Ross . To contact the reporters on this story: Kate Andersen Brower in New York at Kandersen7@bloomberg.net ; Jonathan Ferziger New York at jferziger@bloomberg.net

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Israel Won’t Restrict Jews From Building in East Jerusalem, Netanyahu Says

July 19, 2009

By Gwen Ackerman and Alisa Odenheimer July 19 (Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will not place restrictions on Jews seeking to buy land or live in east Jerusalem after reports that the U.S. has objected to a planned city development. “Our sovereignty in Jerusalem is indisputable,” Netanyahu said before the weekly Cabinet meeting today in remarks broadcast on Army Radio .

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