Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Abbas slams door on talks


Palestinians Reject Israel Settlement Compromise -Adrian Blomfield

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered to extend a freeze on Jewish building in the West Bank in exchange for Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.

Within minutes of the proposal being made public, Palestinian officials had rejected it out of hand.
(Telegraph-UK)


PA Rejects Offer of Freeze for Recognition -Herb Keinon

Prime Minister Netanyahu's spokesman, Mark Regev, said:

"This process will not succeed if the expectation is that the Palestinians make the demands, and Israel makes the concessions. It will only work if it is a two-way street where there is give and take, and flexibility is exercised on both sides."
(Jerusalem Post)


What's Behind Netanyahu's Offer -Joshua Mitnick

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revived a previous offer, saying he would support a new settlement freeze if Palestinians would recognize Israel as a Jewish state, a demand he made when he first endorsed a Palestinian state a year ago. Israelis see Palestinian recognition of Israel as the Jewish homeland as confirmation that their neighbors accept Israel's legitimacy.

Dore Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the UN under Netanyahu, said that the prime minister is responding to what he sees as Palestinians front-loading the peace process with divisive issues that should be part of the negotiations rather than a precondition. "Israel is essentially saying that if we are going to abide by these new rules of putting the substance of the negotiations ahead of time, why can't Israel do the same thing?'' he said. "Either they will do it, or they are going to drop the notion that you have to have preconditions for negotiation.''
(Christian Science Monitor)
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