Tag Archive for Peace Process

| July 22, 2013
No comments

Martin Indyk to represent US at Israeli-Palestinian peace talks

Former Ambassador Indyk said to be an accepted mediator by both PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Abbas.

By

 

Former U.S. ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk might be appointed the U.S. representative at Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, American blogger Laura Rozen reported Sunday, quoting diplomatic sources.

Martin Indyk speaks during U.S.- Islamic World Forum in Doha, June 2013.

Martin Indyk speaks during U.S.- Islamic World Forum in Doha, June 2013. – Photo: Reuter

Writing in Al-Monitor website, Rozen suggested the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was considering appointing Indyk, who also served as the Clinton’s administration’s assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs as the man in charge of the day to day negotiations. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , , , ,
| July 21, 2013
No comments

Lapid: Peace process must bring about ‘fair divorce ‘ from Palestinians

 

Meretz & Labor leaders offer PM support in attaining a peace treaty should coalition partners abandon Netanyahu.

By LAHAV HARKOV

 

 

 

Finance Minister Yair Lapid expressed cautious optimism about peace talks Saturday, after US Secretary of State John Kerry announced the opening of negotiations.

Yair Lapid

Yair Lapid – Photo: Baz Ratner/Reuters

“To the left we say: We must negotiate the way that is accepted in the Middle East – toughly, suspiciously, while trying to ‘sell at a high price’ and not compromise on the essential assets of the State of Israel,” Lapid wrote on Facebook.

The Yesh Atid leader’s message to the right is “we must separate ourselves from the Palestinians, because a bi-national state means the end of Zionism.

Continue Reading »
Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| July 21, 2013
No comments

Minister Landau: Agreeing to release prisoners – BIG mistake

 

Tourism minister Uzi Landau says ‘no gestures should be made prior to talks’ & objects to discussing 1967 borders, dubbing them ‘Auschwitz’ borders.

Defense Minister Ya’alon confirms, ‘No preconditions’

By Attila Somfalvi

 

 

Before entering negotiations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have to confront voices within the coalition that oppose the release of over 100 Palestinian prisoners in order to renew talks. Minister Uzi Landau (Yisrael Beitenu) told Ynet on Saturday that “the Israeli consent to release prisoners is a mistake. We must learn from past mistakes and not make any gestures before negotiations begin.”

Minister Uzi Landau – Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg

Although Netanyahu and his spokesmen insisted there would be no preconditions for the renewal of negotiations, Minister Landau expressed doubt: “I am not convinced there are no undisclosed understandings between Israel and the Americans in regards to Israel’s gestures.” Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| July 21, 2013
No comments

Bennett: Negotiations won’t stop construction in Jerusalem, Judea & Samaria

Housing Minister: There will be no construction freeze, I’ll use my authority to supply needed housing.

By Gil Ronen

 

Bayit Yehudi Chairman and Economics Minister, Naftali Bennett, called Saturday for construction in Judea and Samaria to proceed even after negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (PA) are launched.

“Our insistence on our principles paid off,” Bennett said in a statement following U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s announcement that peace talks were about to resume. “It has been proven that when we insist on our position, negotiations can be carried out without preconditions, without a freeze, and certainly without the delusional demand to carry them out on the basis of [pre-] 67 lines. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| July 20, 2013
No comments

Hamas: What Peace Talks? There’s No Negotiating with the Occupation

Hamas quickly rejects U.S. Sec of St announcement of a return to peace talks between the Abu Mazan & Israel.

By Elad Benari, Canada

 

 

The Hamas terrorist group which controls Gaza was quick to pour cold water on U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s announcement that peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority would resume.

“Hamas rejects Kerry’s announcement of a return to talks and considers the Palestinian Authority’s return to negotiations with the occupation to be at odds with the national consensus,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP on Friday, after Kerry announced at a press conference in Amman that negotiators from both sides will be meeting in Washington next week. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , , ,
| July 20, 2013
No comments

Breakthrough? Kerry announces Abbas agrees to peace talks

Kerry’s hectic diplomacy appears to bear fruit as US Sec of St announces resumption of peace talks at Amman, Jordan press conference.

Negotiations scheduled to begin next week in Washington.

By Elior Levy

 

US State Secretary John Kerry announced an agreement has been reached on the resumption of peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians in a press conference in Jordan’s capital Amman, after a series of meetings in Jordan and Ramallah with Palestinian officials.

קרי בירדן, בדרך לרמאללה (צילום: AFP)

Kerry in Jordan – Photo: AFP

Tzipi Livni, the minister in charge of the negotiation on the Israeli side, the prime minister’s emissary Yitzhak Molcho and Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat are expected to meet in Washington as early as next week for the beginning of the talks. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| July 19, 2013
One comment

Kerry Goes Home After PLO says No

Mustafa Barghouti, a PA member of parliament, said “most factions” within the PLO had rejected Kerry’s proposal.

By Arutz Sheva

 

US Secretary of State John Kerry was preparing to leave the Middle East on Friday as Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders rejected his plan to resume the stalled peace talks.

The setback for the US plan came from the governing Revolutionary Council of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s own Fatah (PLO) movement, which demanded changes. This, despite reports that Israel had agreed to negotiate with the PA on the basis of tacit agreements that Israeli nationalists would find hard to swallow.

The broader Palestine Liberation Organisation, which also includes leftwing factions less sympathetic towards a compromise, said it was also drawing up a formal response to Kerry’s proposals. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| July 18, 2013
No comments

Another Palestinian Precondition: Abbas Demands Airport in Ramallah

Western sources leak new list of Palestinians’ conditions for renewing peace talks

in wake of Kerry-Abbas talks, which include permission to build

 airport in Ramallah, construction of hotels on the Dead Sea, more visas to work in Israel etc. etc. etc….

By Elior Levy

 

Western sources told Ynet Wednesday that in meetings with international sources on the issue of renewing peace talks with Israel, the Palestinians stipulated that they be granted approval to build an airport in Ramallah – the first in the West Bank.

Kerry, Abbas talk peace – Photo: AFP

It has been reported in the past that economic incentives would be granted to the Palestinians as part of the peace talks’ resumption, but so far the nature of said incentives has remained vague. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| July 8, 2013
No comments

Shas & Likud members go to Ramallah

Israeli activists visited Ramallah & met with senior PA officials to hear history of negotiations and exchange political positions & arguments.

On the menu: meetings, kosher meals, &

photo

 courtesies

for social networks.

By Elior Levy

RAMALLAH – Dozens of activists and members of the Likud and Shas parties descended Sunday morning from a bus parked near the Mukata in Ramallah, on their way to a meeting with senior Palestinian officials organized by the Geneva Initiative.

The Israelis were ushered into the building’s conference room, where they were greeted by the Secretary General of the PLO Executive Committee, Yasser Abd Rabbo, and Fatah officials Nabil Shaath and Muhammed Madani. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , , , ,
| July 1, 2013
No comments

Senior Israeli diplomat: Kerry disappointed in Abbas

 

After failing to renew peace talks U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry departs saying: ‘With a little more work, final status negotiations are within reach’.

Israeli official: Most of Kerry’s pressure is now directed at PA Abbas.

By Mati Tuchfeld, Daniel Siryoti, Yoni Hirsch & Israel Hayom Staff

 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is disappointed in the conduct of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a senior Israeli diplomatic official said on Sunday after Kerry departed Israel following his latest attempt to renew Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Sunday – Photo: Reuters

Before taking off from Ben-Gurion International Airport, Kerry promised to return soon and announced that two of his aides would remain in Israel to work on bridging remaining differences that are preventing the resumption of negotiations.

Continue Reading »
Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| June 30, 2013
One comment

Netanyahu tells cabinet that any peace-accord with Arabs will go to referendum

As Kerry pushes to rejuvenate negotiations, the PM looks to neutralize future political crisis by assuring ministers opposed, that they need not resign from the gov’t over the peace issue because ultimately, it’s the public who will decide.

By HERB KEINON
 

 

Any future agreement with the Palestinians will be brought to the country in the form of a referendum, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said at the outset of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, just hours after finishing a six-hour late-night meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry.

This was Netanyahu’s third meeting with Kerry since he arrived Thursday afternoon.

Continue Reading »
Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| June 25, 2013
No comments

White House trying to ‘rein in’ Kerry over pledges to allies & rivals alike

America’s top diplomat, US Sec. of St. John Kerry has issued several as yet undelivered & perhaps undeliverable foreign policy promises, including a historic breakthrough in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

By

In four months as secretary of state, John Kerry has certainly promised great things. Now he has to deliver.

In the Middle East, he has raised hopes his solo diplomatic effort can produce a historic breakthrough ending six decades of Arab-Israeli conflict.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on visit to New Delhi, India.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on visit to New Delhi, India. – Photo: Reuters

 

He has pledged to bring Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government to heel and to work with Russia to end Syria’s civil war. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , , ,
| June 24, 2013
No comments

EU backs down to avoid undermining Kerry’s peace efforts

Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovakia & Romania, recommending that the ministers in their meetings just adopt a general statement supporting Kerry’s efforts.

By HERB KEINON

 

 

 

In a move surely to be applauded in Jerusalem, the European Union foreign ministers are unlikely to issue detailed conclusions on the Middle East peace process following their monthly meeting on Monday in Luxembourg.

Netanyahu at meeting with Catherine Ashton, EU High Rep for Foreign Affairs, June 20, 2013. – Photo: Courtesy – GPO

 

Both Israeli and European officials said certain key EU actors were impacted by Jerusalem’s arguments that a detailed European statement right now regarding how the EU envisions the peace process would only serve to undermine US Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to get the sides back to the negotiating table.

Continue Reading »
Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| June 21, 2013
No comments

PM Netanyahu: The Arabs Want it All, All of ‘Palestine’

PM Netanyahu tells Presidential Conference that peace will never be possible until the Arabs agree to recognize the Jewish State.

By Elad Benari

 

Israel wants peace, but it is not willing to sacrifice its security for it, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Thursday evening at the closing session of the Presidential Conference.

 

“For peace to be maintained, we must be strong in the present and in the future. Because a peace accord that compromises our security will not endure, and I will never compromise the security of the State of Israel and its citizens,” said Netanyahu.

“Therefore, when we talk about ‘tomorrow’ I talk about a tomorrow of peace, security and also prosperity.” Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| June 19, 2013
No comments

PLO warns US against exerting pressure on Arabs to resume talks unconditionally

 

West Bank leadership calls on US secretary of state Kerry to exert pressure on Israel to “fulfill its obligations” instead of suggesting that the PA drop their demands of pre-conditions just to negotiate.

Erekat deflecting criticism: Israeli gov’t strategy based on “destroying the 2-state solution.”

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
 

 

The Fatah leadership on Wednesday warned the US Administration against exerting pressure on the Palestinian Authority to resume peace talks with Israel unconditionally.

PA President Abbas and Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat [file].

PA President Abbas and Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat – Photo: REUTERS/Tarek Mostafa

The warning came as US Secretary of State John Kerry prepares to return to the region next week to resume his efforts to revive the stalled peace talks between the PA and Israel.PA

Continue Reading »
Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
« Older Entries   Recent Entries »