'Palestinians' put ICC on hold

With US Secretary of State John FN Kerry due in our area on Sunday, the 'Palestinians' have put a planned appeal to the International Criminal Court to stop Israeli construction in Area E1 (between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim) on hold.

PA Foreign Minister Riad Malki said the PA leadership was expecting Kerry to bring new ideas and proposals for resuming the peace process. Amireh said the decision to postpone the court bid was taken three months ago in order to give a chance to US efforts to resume peace talks between Israel and the PA.

He said the PA was hoping that the US and other international parties would be able to exert pressure on Israel to stop its "measures" against the Palestinians.

"The Palestinian leadership took the decision to postpone its plan to go to the international court in order to give a last chance to halt Israeli plans to build in area E-1 [between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim," Amireh told the Palestinian news agency Quds Net.

Amireh denied that the PA decision was related to Kerry's renewed attempts to revive the peace process.

An Israeli government official said the Palestinian decision to "take unilateral steps in international bodies has been one of the major causes of friction, because ultimately the only way to solve issues is through negotiations, not grandstanding at UN forums where they have an automatic majority."

Another PLO official, Ahmed Majdalani, said that he did not rule out the possibility that Kerry, who is returning to the region this week, would carry new ideas to resume the stalled peace talks. Majdalani said that Kerry's visit to the region would determine whether the Americans have new ideas to revive the peace process.

He stressed that the PA's stance regarding the peace process remained unchanged, noting that Israel must cease construction in all settlements, including east Jerusalem, and release Palestinian prisoners imprisoned before the signing of the Oslo Accords.

Please tell me our government won't be dumb enough to cave in to these demands again.  The 'Palestinians' don't want a solution and all a 'settlement freeze' will do is to encourage them to stall some more.