No freeze, no talks?
Are the 'Palestinians' looking to climb down from the position that if Israel does not extend the 'settlement freeze' they will walk away from the 'direct talks'? According to this report, the answer is yes. Israeli media report that the PA has decided that it will not stipulate that talks with Israel depend on it continuing sanctions on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria, especially if it is mainly in the large settlement blocs. They say however, they also expect the US to strongly oppose building in any other territory.But according to this report, the answer is still no.
Israel will cause the recently relaunched peace talks to fail if it resumes building in West Bank settlements, Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat [pictured. CiJ]was quoted as saying Monday.But what happens if Peace Now is right and there are actually an additional 13,000 units that can be built without any government approvals? Hmmm.
Israel Radio cited a rare interview the senior PA official gave to a Hamas newspaper based in the Gaza Strip.
The comments came a day after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Quartet envoy Tony Blair on Sunday that Israel would neither stop all construction in the West Bank after the moratorium ends on September 26, nor build all the tens of thousands of housing units that are in various planning phases.
“The Palestinians want that after the 26th of September there will be no building in Judea and Samaria, and that will not happen,” the prime minister said.
He said that Israel would build as the Olmert and Sharon governments built, meaning between 1,500 and 2,000 units a year. In this way Netanyahu is hoping to “square the circle,” telling the Palestinians that the current situation will continue, since building continued on about 2,500 units that were started before the moratorium went into effect in November, while telling his coalition partners, who want to see building continue, that the moratorium has ended.
My guess is that the 'Palestinians' find a way to stay at the table for now and that the issue gets revisited after November 2.
What could go wrong?
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:38 PM
1 Comments:
My feeling is the Palestinians will find a way to overlook the issue... since the settlement blocs... er revanants will remain a part of Israel in any future peace accord, the Palestinians really have nothing to worry about.
If they walk out over several thousand Jews moving to live in areas slated to become part of Israel in the future, they will lose their dream of a Palestinian state. Assuming that is what they are actually after.
That said, I still see direct talks going nowhere in the foreseeable future.
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