Peace talks between israel and palestine suspended

The deadline for peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians ended Tuesday with both sides as far apart as ever. It’s been nine months of marathon meetings and incessant Sponsored by the chief U.S. diplomat, John Kerry, who still refuses to acknowledge the failure of its flagship initiative contacts. The parties, however, blame each other for the umpteenth failed peace.

The conservative government of Benjamin Netanyahu insists Palestinian are responsible for the failure.  A high government official based on anonymity explained Tuesday in Jerusalem that Israel tried to extend negotiations beyond the deadline, but there was no response from Ramallah”, the West Bank headquarters of the Palestinian Authority (PA) presiding Mahmud Abbas. This Israeli government source very familiar with the negotiations, blames Abbas for having given up on the process when a week ago it announced, the reconciliation agreement between Fatah, the main party of the Liberation Organization (PLO) led by Abbas in the West Bank, and Hamas, the Islamist party that governs the Gaza Strip.

The PLO, meanwhile, accused Israel of systematically ignoring various deals that should allow the peace process to continue, as the release of the fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners scheduled for this spring or freezing of housing construction in the West Bank and Jerusalem east. On Tuesday, Abbas appointed these two conditions for the peace process to continue beyond the period of three months.

Netanyahu indefinitely suspended talks with Abbas a day after reconciliation with Hamas PLO and its intention to form a unity government within five weeks. Israel, he said, will not negotiate with an organization (Hamas) which denies Israel right to exist. Abbas must “choose between peace and Hamas,” as repeated. Washington reacted by demanding the future Palestinian government to assume the commitments made by the Palestinian Authority, including the renunciation of violence and recognition of Israel. But Netanyahu insists that Hamas must do this first. Otherwise, Israel will not negotiate with a government that participates in the Islamist organization, either directly or indirectly. As if there were differences with allies of Washington, Israeli senior official said on Tuesday that “the United States would not negotiate with a government that has terrorists in the back room.”

But there are differences. Kerry has been much warmer than Netanyahu to assess the agreement between Hamas and Abbas. For prudence, first, because in the past similar projects failed. The collapse of the talks is a serious setback for Obama and his enthusiastic secretary of state.

Kerry himself gave the measure of his anger at the null result of its costly mediation. Speaking to camera released Monday by the magazine The Daily Beast, Kerry warned that Israel “risks” to degenerate into “an apartheid state, with second-class citizens” without progress in the creation of a Palestinian state and the persistent occupation. The Secretary of State for Obama later retracted the analogy, a high Israeli official downplayed it: “Anyone can see that Israel is a democracy and the rule of law.” He listed a number of Israeli “pending decisions ” with the Palestinians as smuggling tunnels or airport security.

He said that Israel “does not want to occupy the Palestinian territories” and that the Israeli government does not want “to perpetuate the status quo.” While some right-wing voices in the coalition Netanyahu chairs,  talk to annex the West Bank territories inhabited by settlers and forget about a Palestinian state in Jerusalem, argue that the political goal remains a two-state solution.

“Forty times I have met with John Kerry in the last nine months,” Mahmud Abbas on Saturday was amazed at the Muqata, his compound in Ramallah government. The head of the Palestinian Authority defended his dealings with Hamas and reiterated that the future unity government, which he will chair, will recognize the State of Israel and all prior agreements of the Authority. The PLO is convinced of the viability of reconciliation, which in turn casts doubt on Israel. In the past they wrecked several similar attempts coexistence between Hamas and Abbas’s PLO, which in 2007 was violently divided the Palestinian Territories. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, where the decision was received with joy, the announcement of an agreement that could help to improve the disastrous quality of life in the area, surrounded by Israel and international isolation.

Abbas has repeatedly threatened the dissolution of the PA, which would force Israel to take over the territories as an occupying power. A worrying scenario for all involved.

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Posted by Kiran Chaudhary on May 1 2014. Filed under Middle East. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.