[PAA-Discuss] ISRAEL REFUSES U.S GIFT OF $3 BILLION-SETTLEMENTS WILL CONTINUE?

[Bob Carter]

  Greetings all,
       Could the negotiations between Clinton-Obama vs.Netanyahu have gone something like this:
 
Clinton-Obama: "Bibi, would you please stop the construction of the settlements (ILLEGAL) for just 3 more months to restart the peace negotiations with Palestine. You see we would love to go down in history as the first administration to bring peace to the Middle East.
 
 Netanyahu: "We tried that for almost a year and it didn't work. That stubborn and unreasonable Abbas wants all settlements (illegal) to stop permanently.
 
Clinton-0bama: "What if we gave you 20 F-35 fighter jets worth 3 billion dollars, would you stop building for 3 more months?"
 
Netanyhu:  "Hey that sounds very tempting, but I will have to take it back to Israel and get an OK.  I'll get back to you."
 
Clinton-Obama: "You can see we are on our knees. Please make us look good." 
 
Thanks for indulging me. It could have happened just like that. 
Bob
 
     The following article by McClatchy Newspapers was in today's Chronicle (Dec. 8) in a truncated form. Paragraphs 7,8,9,10 and 13 were left out in the Chronicle version.  I didn't know they could pick and choose like that.
  The title of the article below is U.S. DROPS PUSH FOR ISRAELI FREEZE ON SETTLEMENTS.   
     The article below is not perfectly clear to me. Has the U. S. dropped its push for the 3 month Israeli freeze on settlements because Abbas said that Palestine will not negotiate unless all illegal Israeli settlements stop, or did the U.S. drop the 3 month moratoriam request because Israel rejected the 20 jets-3 billion dollar gift?  It appears that the latter is correct. Maybe we should have offered 40 jets and a partridge in a pear tree. 
     Since the U. S. no longer demands a 3 month freeze on Israeli settlements, does this mean that the U. S. will honor Palestine's demand and require Israel to permanently freeze all settlement building or does it mean that the U. S. will forget the entire matter and allow Israel to continue building the illegal settlements which they have done since 1967.     
     One thing is clear.  The U. S. is highly baised in favor of Israel, so how can we be an honest broker?
 
Any comments?              
           











By Sheera Frenkel | McClatchy News
                                                   (1)

JERUSALEM — The U.S. has given up on trying to persuade Israel to declare a moratorium on new building in the West Bank in an effort to win Palestinian participation in face-to-face peace talks, the Obama administration said Tuesday. 
                                                    (2)
"After consultation with the parties, we have determined that a moratorium extension will not at this time provide the best basis for resuming direct negotiations," according to a statement provided by the White House. A spokesman specified that the statement should be attributed to "U.S. officials."
                                                   (3)
The Palestinian Authority has insisted that it will not engage in direct talks with Israel unless Israel freezes all construction for Jewish settlers in the West Bank, something the Israelis have refused to do, even after the Obama administration offered to provide Israel with 20 F-35 fighter jets worth $3 billion in return for a 90-day freeze.
                                                    (4)
The official U.S. statement, however, rejected the idea that the peace talks are dead.
                                                     (5)
"In the coming days and weeks, we will engage with both sides on the core substantive issues at stake in this conflict, and with the Arab states and other international partners on creating a firm basis to work toward our shared goal of a framework agreement on all permanent status issues — a goal to which we and the parties remain committed," the statement said. "We will continue these efforts next week when the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators visit Washington next week."
                                                      (6)
There was no immediate reaction from either the Israelis or the Palestinians. Israeli officials have said that previous freezes did little to push forward talks, and accused the Palestinians of setting preconditions to the peace talks.
                                                      (7)
Earlier in the day, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told a parliamentary committee that a deal was never reached on a building freeze because the U.S. was preoccupied with the diplomatic crisis over the WikiLeaks cables.
                                                      (8)
"At the moment, (the talks) have been completely halted," Barak told the Knesset's Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense.
White House spokesman Tommy Vietor denied the WikiLeaks connection.
                                                       (9)
"That's completely inaccurate," he said in an e-mail. "There's no connection between WikiLeaks and these negotiations."
                                                       (10)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suggested in a television interview last week that he would dissolve the Palestinian government, a limited form of self-rule agreed in an interim deal in 1993, if a deal for statehood couldn't be achieved.
                                                        (11)
In March 2010, U.S. officials announced that they would begin mediating indirect "proximity" talks, which involved diplomats shuttling between Israeli and Palestinian leadership.
                                                        (12)
Those talks were expected to move toward direct negotiations, and the White House hosted a ceremony in September to announce the talks.
                                                         (13)
But the Israeli renewal of construction in the settlements just a few weeks later meant that the direct talks never got off the ground. The American negotiating team, led by U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell, has struggled to bring the two sides to the same negotiating table ever since.

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