Netanyahu Threatens to Retaliate if Palestinians Declare Statehood
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to retaliate if Palestinians declare a unilateral state, saying such a move would unravel existing agreements with the Israelis.
Netanyahu’s stern comments come the same day that a senior Palestinian official told Fox News they are considering a U.N. resolution to declare a Palestinian state. Palestinian officials had said Sunday they were preparing to ask the United Nations to endorse an independent state without Israel’s consent because they were losing faith in the peace talks.
But Netanyahu, speaking at the Saban Forum in Jerusalem, said there is “no substitute” for negotiations.
“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,” he said. He did not elaborate further.
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Obama Goes After Israel In UN Speech
In declaring that it is time for Middle East peace “without preconditions,” President Obama used his speech to the U.N. General Assembly Wednesday to fire a warning at Israel that “America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.”Obama’s stark declaration, which drew applause, was coupled with a call for Palestinians to end their “incitement of Israel.
“But it was the use of the U.N. forum to carry the settlement message to Israel that drew the most enthusiastic response on the floor — and incredulous reaction outside its walls.Obama just put Israel “on the chopping block,” said former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton.
Netanyahu Calls for Conditional Palestinian State
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed an independent Palestinian state beside Israel for the first time on Sunday, dramatically reversing himself in the face of U.S. pressure but attaching conditions the Palestinians swiftly rejected.
A week after President Barack Obama’s address to the Muslim world, Netanyahu said the Palestinian state would have to be unarmed and recognize Israel as the Jewish state — a condition amounting to Palestinian refugees giving up the goal of returning to Israel.
Netanyahu, in an address seen as his reponse to Obama, refused to heed the U.S. call for an immediate freeze of construction on lands Palestinians claim for their future state. He also said the holy city of Jerusalem must remain under Israeli sovereignty.
Senior Palestinian officials Saeb Erekat said the plan “closed the door” to negotiations.
Still, it was a dramatic transformation for a man raised on a fiercely nationalistic ideology and who has spent a two-decade political career criticizing peace efforts.
“I call on you, our Palestinian neighbors, and to the leadership of the Palestinian Authority: Let us begin peace negotiations immediately, without preconditions,” he said, calling on the wider Arab world to work with him.
Barak Urges Netanyahu To Accept Palestinian State
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the principle of a Palestinian state.
“The current government was formed with the commitment to respect the deals reached by preceding governments,” Barak told public radio, ahead of a speech by Netanyahu on Sunday to lay down his peace policies.
These include “the roadmap which clearly states that the conflict must be resolved on the principle of two states for two peoples,” said the head of centre-left Labour party, the most moderate member of Netanyahu’s otherwise right-leaning cabinet.
“If such a solution fails, there will be only one political entity from the Jordan Valley to the Mediterranean — the state of Israel.
“Under such a scenario, if the Palestinians have the right to vote, it will no longer be a Jewish state, but a bi-national state. And if they don’t have the right to vote, it will be an apartheid regime,” said the former premier.
[...]
The hawkish Netanyahu, who is due to present his government’s peace policy on Sunday, has yet to publicly embrace the creation of a Palestinian state, the cornerstone of international peace efforts.
The Israeli press has been filled with speculation in recent days that Netanyahu may finally do so in his speech.
US President Barack Obama’s administration has been pressing Israel to commit to the two-state principle and to halt all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank
Obama Gets Tough With Israel, Readies For Cairo
President Barack Obama has gotten tough with Israel and chosen Cairo — where President Hosni Mubarak rules with a firm hand — for his much-awaited overture to the Islamic world in what appears to be a clear break from decades of U.S. policy.
Many issues cloud American relations with the Muslim world, but none rankles like U.S. ties to Israel and massive support for the Jewish state in the heart of the Arab Middle East.
While the majority of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims live in Asia, the growing militancy among the followers of the Prophet Muhammad took root largely in the Middle East. The dramatic strike against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, was the work of Arabs under the direction of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who was born in Saudi Arabia.
Bin Laden cited anger at U.S. support for Israel as the guiding philosophy of the terrorist organization that drew American forces into wars in Afghanistan, where he was believed to be hiding, and Iraq, which was flooded by al-Qaida fighters after the U.S. invasion in 2003.
Those wars and U.S. policy toward Israel have produced a growing belief in the Muslim world that the United States is at war with Islam.
Given those realities, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs played down expectations of a quick turnaround in U.S.-Muslim relations after Obama’s Thursday speech.
“This is about resetting our relationship with the Muslim world. … We don’t expect everything to change after one speech,” he said.
Report: US Promises Jerusalem Will Be Palestines Capital
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has been assured that US President Barack Obama’s new peace plan includes a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem.
PA officials told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot that the US intends to stand by its policy that East Jerusalem should be the Palestinian capital. Obama is expected to roll out the peace plan in Cairo on 4 June.
The plan also calls for Israel to freeze settlement activity, and a clear timetable for the establishment of a Palestinian state, negotiated under the framework of the Arab Peace Initiative. The newspaper said the US is expected to ask Arab states also to set a timeline for establishing normalized diplomatic ties with Israel.
Meanwhile US Senators sent a letter to Obama asking him to take into account “risks [Israel will] face in any peace agreement.”
The letter, signed by 76 US senators, or more than three quarters of the upper chamber of the congress, urged Obama to “continue to insist on the absolute Palestinian commitment to ending terrorist violence and to building the institutions necessary for a viable Palestinian state living side-by-side, in peace with the Jewish state of Israel,” according to Yediot.
A similar letter is reported to have garnered 200 signatures in the House of Representatives.
On his two-day visit to Washington, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did face demands to halt construction of settlements in the occupied West Bank.
via Report: US Promised Jerusalem Will Be Palestine^s Capital.
Pope in Israel Calls for Palestinian State
Pope Benedict XVI called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian homeland immediately after he arrived in Israel Monday, a stance that could put him at odds with his hosts on a trip aimed at improving ties between the Vatican and Jews.
The pope also took on the delicate issue of the Holocaust, pledging to “honor the memory” of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Nazi genocide at the start of his five-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Benedict touched down in Israel on the second leg of a weeklong pilgrimage to the Holy Land, after spending three days in neighboring Jordan. He is using the tour to reach out to both Muslims and Jews.
In his first public comments upon arriving, Benedict urged Israelis and Palestinians to “explore every possible avenue” to resolve their differences.
“The hopes of countless men, women and children for a more secure and stable future depend on the outcome of negotiations for peace,” he told a welcoming ceremony at Israel’s international airport. “In union with people of goodwill everywhere, I plead with all those responsible to explore every possible avenue in the search for a just resolution of the outstanding difficulties, so that both peoples may live in peace in a homeland of their own within secure and internationally recognized borders.”
White House Links Iran Nukes To Palestinian State
May 5, 2009 by admin
Filed under new world order
The Obama Administration on Sunday did what Israelis have long feared and pleaded with the US to avoid when White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel linked the resolution of the Iran nuclear crisis to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Speaking at the annual Washington conference of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Ynet quoted Emanuel as insisting that the ability to confront Iran and reach a diplomatic solution over its defiant nuclear program was solely dependent on progress toward the birth of “Palestine.”
Emanuel said that with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scheduled to meet with US President Barack Obama later this month, Israel now faces a moment of truth – it can either acquiesce to international demands and in return have its most serious threats dealt with, or maintain the status quo and have those threats persist.
In its main conference event on Tuesday, AIPAC is scheduled to present the congressmen representing its thousands of members from across the country with a letter urging Obama to take strong action toward the creation of a “viable Palestinian state.”
A majority of the congressmen are expected to sign the letter and pass it on to the president.
Pope’s Visit To Israel Fraught With Potential Minefields
The official Israeli government Web site for Pope Benedict XVI’s upcoming trip to Israel and the West Bank promotes the May 11-15 visit as a “Bridge for Peace.”
Others, however, describe it as a potential minefield where various factions may try to exploit the pope’s presence for political gain.
“Both Jewish and Muslim ideologues are determined to stop the pope crossing that bridge,” wrote Catholic religion journalist Damian Thompson in his blog for the U.K. Telegraph, “either by smearing him as an anti-Semite or by making his visit to a Palestinian refugee camp look like a politically motivated reproach to Israel.”
The German-born pontiff leaves for the Middle East on May 8; he will spend three days in Jordan before flying to Israel.
Obama Nudges Israel On Palestinian Statehood
U.S. President Barack Obama nudged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday to accept the goal of a Palestinian state, as he pressed Israel and the Palestinians to “step back from the abyss.”
Deepening his direct role in reviving stalled peace efforts, Obama met Jordan’s King Abdullah and invited Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for separate talks by early June.
He seized the chance to reassure Abdullah of his commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict despite reluctance by Netanyahu’s new right-leaning government to support eventual Palestinian statehood.
Obama reasserted his pledge to “deeply engage” in Arab-Israeli peace diplomacy — in contrast to a more hands-off approach by his predecessor George W. Bush — and predicted good-faith gestures from both sides in coming months.
“What we have to do is step back from the abyss,” Obama told reporters after meeting Abdullah, a key Arab ally, at the White House.
But Obama’s Middle East strategy has been complicated by the emergence of a coalition led by Netanyahu, who since coming to power last month has avoided recognizing the Palestinians’ right to an independent state, as his predecessor Ehud Olmert did.
Obama took care not to confront Netanyahu head-on but made clear his administration hoped to coax him into accepting the principle of a two-state solution, which has been the basis of U.S. policy for years.
“They are going to have to formulate and, I think, solidify their position,” Obama said of Israel’s new government.
Obama Will Quickly Give Palestinians State
President Obama will move to create a Palestinian state “more quickly than anybody could imagine.” At least that’s the message the Palestinian Authority claims it received from the U.S.
A chief PA negotiator, speaking to WND from the West Bank city of Ramallah, said that in recent days Palestinian officials held preliminary meetings leading to an in-person confab today between PA President Mahmoud Abbas and George Mitchell, Obama’s envoy to the Mideast.
The PA negotiator said the American team preparing for Mitchell’s meeting with Abbas conveyed to the Palestinians that Obama seeks to move swiftly toward a Palestinian state.
Said the PA negotiator: “They (the U.S. team) told us, ‘We don’t mind who is the government in Israel. Things will be closed (for a Palestinian state) and more quickly than anybody could imagine.”
Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting with Obama’s envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, to outline the prime minister’s approach to Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
US President Barack Obama’s Mideast envoy George Mitchell said Friday that a “two-state solution is the only solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, highlighting stark policy differences between the US and Israel over the idea of Palestinian statehood.
Palestinians – No Agreement Without Jerusalem
The Palestinians will never sign any agreement with Israel Read more
