Palestinians slam Netanyahu claims

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses Congress Tuesday on Capitol Hill

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/181610.html

Palestinians have slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for refusing to withdraw to borders set before the 1967 Israeli-Arab war as the basis for negotiations.

Addressing the US Congress on Tuesday, Netanyahu ruled out a return to what he has repeatedly described as "indefensible" pre-1967 borders.

He also pledged to keep key parts of the occupied West Bank, including East al-Quds (Jerusalem) -- which is widely regarded as the future capital of an independent Palestinian state.

Wrapping up his chaotic visit to Washington, the Israeli premier, however, claimed that he was willing to make "painful compromises" and abandon "some" Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Netanyahu's outright refusal came a week after US President Barack Obama insisted that the borders issue should be the basis for stalled direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The hardline position of the Israeli official in his arranged address in the US Congress has brought strong reactions from Palestinians, the Associated Press reported.

In the Gaza Strip, the democratically elected government of Hamas condemned Netanyahu's speech, stressing once again that the only path towards freedom is through resistance.

"Netanyahu denied us all our rights," said Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman. "We must work to adopt an Arab and Palestinian strategy based on the right of resistance."

And in Ramallah, any hopes that Netanyahu might give ground were quickly dampened.

“This was a statement of someone who wants to dictate the results of negotiations before they begin,” said Saeb Erekat, an aide to the Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas.

“He dictated that Jerusalem will be undivided, that refugees cannot return, that his army will remain on the borders, that his settlements will be expanded and kept, that he wants Palestine to be demilitarized,” Erekat said.

Meanwhile, Nabil Shaath, another aide to Abbas, called Netanyahu's speech a "declaration of war against the Palestinians."

The Palestinian Authority is now pinning hopes on a plan to seek statehood unilaterally at the United Nations in September -- something Israel and the US oppose.

This is while more than 100 countries have so far officially recognized Palestine as a state based on the 1967 borders, the boundaries that existed before Israel captured East al-Quds (Jerusalem), the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.

Israeli PM rebuffs US president demand

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/181532.html

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has once again rebuffed US President Barack Obama's demand for returning to the 1967 borders.

Addressing the US Congress on Tuesday, Netanyahu said that Israel could not return to the "indefensible" borders which existed in 1967.

"Any peace deal must take into account the dramatic demographic changes that have occurred since 1967," he said.

Netanyahu made the remarks after he took the same stance in his address to the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington on Monday.

Obama in his Middle East speech last week insisted that the borders issue should be the basis for stalled direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The US-sponsored negotiations between the two sides cancelled after Tel Aviv refused to extend its partial 10-month freeze on settlement activities.

Netanyahu also said that the Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas was not a partner for peace with Israel.

The Israeli premier also rejected Palestinians' demand of having East al-Quds (Jerusalem) as the capital of the future Palestinian state.

"Jerusalem must never again be divided. Jerusalem must remain the united capital of Israel," he said.

Israel occupied al-Quds and the West Bank in the 1967 war and later annexed it -- despite opposition from the international community -- in line with plans to grab the entire al-Quds as what it refers to as its "eternal, indivisible capital."

Meanwhile, a Palestinian official said on Tuesday that Netanyahu has added more obstacles on the road to peace with his speech.

On Monday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the two sides should have two states “with secure and recognized borders based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps.”

Commenting on President Obama's position, she said, “As the president now has said twice in the last three days, this is a well-known formula to all who have worked on this issue for a generation.”

'Israel won't withdraw to 1967 borders'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/181442.html

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Tel Aviv will never withdraw to the 1967 borders as a step towards peace with Palestinians.

Netanyahu boasted that any 'peace' agreement must guarantee the security of the Israeli regime and that "Israel cannot return to the indefensible 1967 borders," the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

The Israeli prime minister made the remarks in an address to the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington on Monday.

AIPAC is one of the most powerful political pressure groups in the US that spends large sums of money on US lawmakers to ensure unconditional and comprehensive support for the Tel Aviv regime.

Security officers at the conference made several arrests as Netanyahu's speech was reportedly interrupted a number of times by a group of protesters from the Move Over AIPAC organization, a new, less hawkish, pro-Israeli group that supports efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state.

"Growing up as the son of a Holocaust survivor, I learned that it is everyone's job to stand up for others when they are persecuted, and I learned what happens when we do not defend humanity. Now, it is my job to stand up in support of Palestinians, saying, "bombing schools is indefensible, bulldozing homes is indefensible," said a Jewish American protester.

Another protester said, "I am protesting AIPAC and Netanyahu because I am disappointed and enraged that the US supports human rights violations by Israel. This includes killing, injuring, and locking up nonviolent protesters fighting for the same human rights I am. I am appalled that $3 billion US tax dollars goes to fund the perpetuation of violence instead of building a more sustainable future. Silencing dissent is indefensible."

Netanyahu had earlier rejected any notion that the Israeli regime should even consider withdrawing from territories it seized in 1967 at a White House meeting on Friday.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been expelled from their homeland to the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as countries in the region and worldwide since the 1948 Israeli occupation.

Consequently, the Israeli regime has encouraged the immigration of Jews from all over the world to the occupied Palestinian lands.

US reaffirms stance on Palestine borders

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/181408.html

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has reaffirmed the US stance that the borders of a Palestinian state should be based on the 1967 borders.

During a joint press conference with British Foreign Secretary William Hague in London on Monday, Clinton said, “The United States has outlined principles that we believe provide a foundation for negotiations to resolve core issues and the conflict and all claims.”

“Everyone knows what the result should be: Two states for two people with secure and recognized borders based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps,” she added.

Commenting on US President Barack Obama's position, she said, “As the president now has said twice in the last three days, this is a well-known formula to all who have worked on this issue for a generation.”

She also stated that talks should be based on “security arrangements that ensure Israel can effectively defend itself by itself.”

However, during recent talks with Obama in the Oval Office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the US president that Tel Aviv would not make the withdrawal necessary to make way for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

Abbas wants foreign border troops

A complete settlement freeze may not be needed
before direct talks with Israel [Gallo/Getty]


Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/07/201071715237381855.html


The Palestinian president has said that he would enter into direct talks with Israel if it agrees to the deployment of an international force along its 1967 borders.

Mahmoud Abbas made the comments in article published in Jordan's al-Ghad newspaper before meeting George Mitchell, the US envoy to the Middle East, on Saturday.

The interview did not, however, mention demands for a complete halt to Israeli settlement building.


Previously, Palestinian leaders have refused to enter into direct negotiations while Israel continues to build on land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as part of any future state.

"We have put forward to the Israelis our position on different final status issues, and especially on borders and security," Abbas told the Jordanian paper.


Israel wants to keep troops on the eastern border of any future Palestinian state, a demand that the Palestinians deem unacceptable as it would give the Israeli military a continuing presence on Palestinian soil.

Abbas has said, however, that a force from the Nato military alliance could be acceptable.


Land trade


The Palestinian president also signalled that he might be willing to trade Palestinian land captured by Israel in 1967 where settlements have been built, for an equal amount of Israeli land.

"We have said that borders need to be on a 1967 basis, with agreement on land swaps equal in value and size, and we gave our vision regarding security, which was agreed on previously in Olmert's days," Abbas said, referring to Israel's former prime minister.


Negotiations between Abbas and Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, broke off in December 2008, during Israel's military offensive on the Gaza Strip.

Mitchell said he was "heartened" by his meeting with Abbas on Saturday, but he did not elaborate.


However, a leading figure in Abbas's Fatah party said Mitchell had not given adequate answers on the issues of borders or security.

"Mitchell did not present ... any new Israeli answers," Mohammad Dahlan said in a statement.


Before traveling to Ramallah, the US envoy held talks with Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, for the latest in weeks of meeting aimed at getting the two sides to meet.

Abbas said on Saturday that the Israelis need only to recognize that his propositions are acceptable, in principle.

"If they agree, we will consider that progress ... and this would prompt us to go to direct negotiations," he said.

But Netanyahu has previously insisted that any direct talks must take place without conditions.

Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman, blamed the Palestinians for the deadlock. "We definitely don't want another year and a half without negotiations," he said.


Yasser Abed Rabbo, an aide to Abbas, said that a decision on direct talks is not expected before early next month.

He said the Palestine Liberation Organisation's top decision-making body and Arab foreign ministers would have to have their say on the issue, while Abbas is also waiting for clarifications from the US.

Palestinians Warned Over UN Move

News Source: Al Jazeera

Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister has warned the Palestinian leadership against any attempts to unilaterally declare statehood for the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

West Bank-based Palestinian officials said on Sunday that they were preparing to ask the United Nations Security Council to declare their backing for the Palestinian quest for an independent state.
In a radio address on Sunday evening, Netanyahu said: "There is no substitute for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

"Any unilateral action would only unravel the framework of agreements between us and can only lead to one-sided steps on the part of Israel."
Netanyahu did not specify what "steps" Israel could take, but Israeli legal experts have said that if the Palestinians were to move forward on their own then Israel could cancel interim peace accords.

"Israel could say there has been such a gross and major violation that the agreement itself is no longer in force," Robbie Sabel, a former legal adviser to Israel's foreign ministry, told The Associated Press news agency.

Defining Moment

Interim accords agreed by the two sides set up a system of interlocking administrations that falls far short of peaceful relations but brings some order to issues like Palestinian imports and exports, tax collection, utilities and security co-operation.

The Palestinian Authority, which is led by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, is itself is a product of the interim accords.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said that the Palestinians had decided to turn to the UN due to frustration at the lack of progress peace talks, which have been stalled since Israel launched 22-day offensive in Gaza last December.
"Now is our defining moment. We went into this peace process in order to achieve a two-state solution," the Associated Press news agency quoted him as saying.
"The endgame is to tell the Israelis that now the international community has recognized the two-state solution on the '67 borders."

Israel captured and occupied larges areas of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East war, and the Palestinians want to form their state based on the borders agreed by a ceasefire before then.

"They are not looking for a unilateral declaration of independence, they have already done that on November 15, 1988," Al Jazeera's Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, said.

"What they want is something a lot more concrete," she said.
"They know it won't immediately result in the withdrawal of Israeli occupation troops from their territory, but they want the Israelis to stand in front of an international collective will that says this is what needs to be done in order for peace to be realized."

Stalled Talks

Barack Obama, the US president, has been trying to restart talks between Abbas and Netanyahu since the US leader took office in January.
But the efforts have been hindered by the issue of illegal Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank. Abbas has demanded a freeze in the construction before the resumption of negotiations.
Mohammed Dahlan, a senior official in Abbas's Fatah faction, said on Sunday that the UN initiative would be "a real test of the intentions of the international community".

"We are now leading a diplomatic battle," he said. "If the American administration does not agree, that will be another setback."
If the Security Council does not approve the measure, Dahlan said other options include a unilateral declaration of statehood and "popular, comprehensive resistance against settlement and the occupation".

Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, who in June set a goal of establishing the institutions of a state within two years, said it was time for the international community to take responsibility for "the mission of ending the occupation".
"This is the responsibility of the international community and when we talk about that and international law, of course we are talking about the United Nations," he said in Ramallah.

Major Shift

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst, said: "Everyone knows this will not go to the Security Council without the green light from the US.
"If the US gives the green light, it means the relations between the US and Israel are in trouble.

"The US and Israel have avoided the Security Council for more than 16 years. To go back to it today, would be a major shift, a game changer in the diplomatic process.
"All Palestinians would be quite excited. Everyone, on all various levels, feels betrayed by a process that delivered not much after 16 years and seven agreements with the Israelis while quadrupling the illegal Israeli settlements."

Nimr Hamad, an adviser to Abbas, said the Palestinian president would travel to Cairo on Wednesday to discuss the plan with Hosni Mubarak, his Egyptian counterpart.