Israel Deflects Settlement Freeze Calls From Obama, International Community

JERUSALEM — Israel deflected growing international demands for a settlement freeze Saturday, saying the issue should be dealt with in future peace talks with the Palestinians.

On Friday, the Quartet of Mideast mediators and foreign ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations, meeting in Italy, called for a halt in construction. They rallied behind President Barack Obama, who seeks a freeze but has encountered Israeli resistance.

Israel argues that it should be allowed to keep building to accommodate "natural growth" in settlements, built on lands the Palestinians want for a future state. The Palestinians won't resume peace talks with Israel without a freeze, saying the ongoing building pre-empts the outcome of negotiations. Under the U.S.-backed "road map" plan, Israel is required to halt construction.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Saturday that settlements should be left to future negotiations. "The best way to solve this problem is to resume at once bilateral Israeli-Palestinian talks," Palmor said.

Israeli officials say they are trying to find a formula agreeable to Washington that would allow at least limited construction.

Palestinian officials say such a compromise would undermine U.S. credibility.

"The stalemate with Israel will continue if settlement growth does not stop," said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an aide to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Meanwhile, rival Palestinian factions _ Abbas' Fatah and the Islamic militant Hamas _ launched another attempt to reconcile. Hamas overran Gaza two years ago, ousting forces loyal to Abbas, who has since only controlled the West Bank.

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Reconciliation is seen as key to ending a two-year blockade of Gaza's borders, enforced by Israel and Egypt, and to reaching a Mideast peace deal.

Hamas and Fatah negotiators were on route to Cairo on Saturday, with the Egyptian-brokered talks to begin Sunday.

Also Saturday, Egypt briefly opened its border with Gaza. Some 5,000 Gazans signed up to leave over the next three days. Most of those trying to leave were medical patients seeking treatment abroad and Gazans holding foreign residency.

The closure has trapped some 1.4 million people in Gaza.

Egypt opens the crossing periodically. Israel allows in food and humanitarian aid, but won't allow raw materials that the Gaza Strip needs to repair damage from Israel's winter war on Hamas, meant to stop militant rocket fire on Israeli towns.

_______

Associated Press Writer Ibrahim Barzak contributed to this report from Gaza City, Gaza Strip.

Comments

[miguelobrien]

If you are "God's Chosen" you can do whatever you want. It's an old story. Read Deuteronomy and Joshua for written documentation.

[fxowen]

Check this out. Haaretz is reporting that Palestinian workers are being denied entry into Israel if their lunch boxes contain more than ten olives. Unbelievable. Is there no end to Israel's pettiness and cruelty?

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1096322.html

[Macready]

I don't think there is fxowen . . . they will continue in their pettiness, greed, cruelty, arrogance, wars, etc etc until they are stopped big time . . . UN sanctions, trade embargos and a cessation of all US aid must be implemented asap . . or there will be no peace in the Middle East

[batguano]

The annual olive harvest is essential to the Palestinian economy, such as it is, and olive trees are symbolic of the Palestinian culture and people; their very identity, that is why they have been targeted so viciously by the Israeli IDF and especially the settler extremists. Olive trees have been destroyed by the thousands, some centuries old. Settlers routinely destroy olive trees, murder Pal farmers, disrupt the olive harvest and attack peace activists who attempt to help protect the Palestinian farmers during the harvest. Israelis also steal olive trees, transplanting them to settlements or inside the pre-67 Israeli borders. The intent by Israel, as usual, is to destroy Pal culture, their economy and to effect the ethnic cleansing the state IDF and settlers work tirelessly for; a state only for Jews and the Palestinians evicted from their lands. Ethnic cleansing is a truly despicable and racist agenda that has been in effect for decades by Israel.

http://www.poica.org/editor/case_studies/view.php?recordID=456
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/02/20/isrlpa7581.htm
http://www.american.edu/ted/ice/olive-tree.htm
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=234948&contrassID=2&subContrassID+=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

[arle]

Very eloquent and to the heart of a very important core issue of what is really going on over there. I've actually bookmarked the comment since you link to so many useful sources.

BTW I'm not sure what happened but your last link got mixed up. This one works, though:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=234948&contrassID=2&subContrassID+=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

[Mildmannered]

All settlements on occupied territory are unlawful, according to international law. Israel must immediately dismantle them, relocate the settlers within its recognized 1967 borders and compensate Palestinians for the losses the settlements have caused them.

[lianmolive]

I would like to know from those of you (and not many here on HP) who actually agree that Israel has the right to "former" Palestinian territories because they won it in the '67 war, then would you say that if (god forbid) Iran invades Israel and wins war and takes over Jerusalem that they deserve it because they won it fair and square?

[almazza98]

Here is the dilemna. If Israel claims that they "won" the territory, then they won everything in it, including the people in it as well. Israel does not have a right to commit genocide and ethnic cleansing and transfer. And Israel is not a Jewish state with all those people there because to Israel's dismay, they exist and are not Jewish. Israel is also not a democracy and has been an apartheid for a very long time. If the land wasn't won, then Israel has been squadding on the land and stealing and oppressing the natives. Israel is in a lose/lose regardless. If you are strictly basing it on International Law, Israel did not win the land.

[lianmolive]

And Israel claims that it's the Palestinians who don't want peace? How are the Palestinians supposed to come to the negotiating table when Israel won't do the ONE thing that is Vital to the peace process?

I still fail to understand why we give so much aid?

[RJII]

I got Midddle East fatigue.

The US has enormous debt and health problems now.
Why are we investing time and money on these two groups who have proven themselves, time and time again, unwilling to accomplish peace.

Is this investment still worth it? I'd rather invest in alternative energy and repairing the economy.

[Macready]

totally agree with you . . I have israel fatigue . . . time to pull the plug and vote for UN sanctions and trade embargoes . .. the israelis aren't interested in peace . . . they just want to keep expanding at the expense of the Palestinians . . .

[mcantwell]

My thoughts Exactly. Time to cut the purse strings. Until this happens, we will not see any significant movement towards real peace efforts.

[batguano]

"Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French...What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct...If they [the Jews] must look to the Palestine of geography as their national home, it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun. A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb. They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs... As it is, they are co-sharers with the British in despoiling a people who have done no wrong to them. I am not defending the Arab excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regard as an unacceptable encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds." -- Mohandas Gandhi

[SolarArray]

Israel has the exact same world mentality as China - "It's us against them".

[LemonMeringue]

Israel's policies are pure evil. There is no justification for shooting at schoolchildren. There is no justification for bulldozing homes with people still inside, and shooting the people if they flee.

Americans, how do you like the fact that WE are paying for the socialized medicine for every Israeli citizen?

It's time to stop supporting this nation. There surely are many good Israeli people but the government's policies, and its actions, are evil.

[batguano]

Excellent and accurate series of comments from you LM.

[joe107]

i dont think israel does any of the things that you said. any time that israel has to take action against the palestinians, they have to for their own security.

[alexa07]

Sounds like you're working for or in the US corporate media.

[totaldisbelief]

You're blind.

[almazza98]

The fact that Israel does these things are not DEBATABLE. Its a fact PERIOD. I think you have a nerve to play the "They don't do anything" card. Go back to the drawing board.

[jordanispalestine]

You're one lemon that is impossible to make lemonade from!! Israel pays for its own medical coverage for its citizens...UNLIKE the selfish, greedy American medical system where health care for the citizens is a FOR PROFIT business!

[arle]

Yeah, but of course since Israel gets subsidized to the tune of several billion dollars? It's not that the American government doesn't provide medical care for citizens... they just provide it to Israeli citizens.

[Sentientbeing09]

youre hilarious

[NYC-Ninja]

"You're one lemon that is impossible to make lemonade from!!" I bet that sounds way cooler in Hebrew.

[Macready]

Bravo LemonMeringue

[GrumpyinAZ]

They've been Deflecting since 1972

[RTIII]

NOW seems like a good moment to cut off - or at least dramatically reduce - our financial aid to Israel.
.

[Dustee]

Agreed!

[Mildmannered]

ditto

[totaldisbelief]

agreed.

[Sentientbeing09]

thirded

[almazza98]

Not just financial aid but also moral aid.

[MajorKong]

My neighbor gets really miffed every time I try to build a settlement in his back yard.

I keep telling him that my holy book states that my ancestors lived there 3000 years ago but he's not buying it.

[who38]

Block his driveway. That should solve the problem.

[arle]

And if the police show up, tell them you you offered to give your neighbor back 94% of his land but he refused to negotiate, so obviously he doesn't want peace.

[baffy]

Fire bomb his home. God says it is OK.

[Ajita]

This has always been the Israeli (and frequently the American) strategy on the Palestinian issue- make unfair demands, refuse to compromise on those unfair demands, and claim it as proof that the other side is not willing to participate in talks.

No one is asking for those homes built by settlers to be brought down like the Palestinian homes were. All that is being asked is a freezing of new construction. It is text-book power-play here, to demand that the other side come to the table while their rights continue to be violated. Of course, after the homes are built and there is no more land for the Palestinians to have a sustainable society, the argument will become about protecting those who live there, and their homes. This has been repeated numerous times in history.

[batguano]

Excellent and accurate! The fine print definitions and totally unacceptable demands have been a mainstay of Israeli rejectionism and continued occupation and illegal settlements. Israeli demands have been intentionally designed to be rejected.

[Justtellthetruth]

Actually, most people are expecting most of those homes to come down. They were built in direct contravention to the Geneva convention, which prohibits civilians from being moved onto occupied lands. They are now, and always have been, illegal and are completely morally unjustifiable.

They inspire terror and cause the ongoing misery and suffering of MILLIONS of people. They must go.

[mamacat]

And yet, the official Israeli position is that they have the right to, at least, continue expanding the existing settlements, and maybe, keep building new ones.

[jordanispalestine]

false and propaganda!

[ColoradoCool]

Sounds like it strings together to me.

What makes you think it's a defensible position for Israel to insist on keeping illegally populated occupied territories in defiance of numerous treaties, agreements and alliances.

Sounds like you're name calling without presenting a defensible argument.

[Freenation]

yeah and you are the torch bearer of just....

[ProfessorDuh]

"Deflects" is a nice term for giving the world the middle finger.

[dimplesmile7]

Exactly!

[SiberianRat]

Yep.

[mamacat]

The per capita value of U.S. military and economic aid to Israel is higher than that given away to any other country, including Iraq. At least 1/4 of the military aid given to Israel is not spent in the U.S.

In the U.S. Fiscal Year 2010 budget, almost 50% of all foreign military aid from the U.S. will go to Israel.

One of the recurring complaints out of Washington about Israeli policy is that they have sold sensitive military technology provided to them by the U.S. to countries like China and Venezuela, even though the U.S. has asked them not to.

According to the Federation of Israeli Chamber of Commerce, the Gross Domestic Product of that country would grow 15% faster if there were peace in the region.

What it seems everyone in the region is afraid to say, is that extremists have taken over the dynamics of politics in the region. Whether Muslim or Jewish, anyone who advocates a peaceful, just settlement in the region will be targeted for death by radical extremists of both sides.

[Mildmannered]

"One of the recurring complaints out of Washington about Israeli policy is that they have sold sensitive military technology provided to them by the U.S. to countries like China and Venezuela, even though the U.S. has asked them not to."

incredible and unforgivable

[who38]

Isn't that what "special friends" do?

[GZLives]

Stop with this misleading false information. US aid to Israel is basically a US jobs program combined with a non competition component forcing Israel not to develop its own defense industry so the US needn't compete with yet another supplier on the world market and lose more jobs.

For the sake of all those laboring under some misconception that if the US would only stop giving hard earned taxpayer money to Israel they would fall into line, maybe even collapse. WRONG.

Israeli GDP is over 200 billion USD, 2-3 billion of US aid is about 1-1.5% of the GDP, and perhaps 5% of the defense budget (13.3 billion in 2009). Israel can do without it. Actually, Israel could easily make it up if they started selling weapons to China which current agreements with the US do not allow.

Also, something like 90% of US military aid MUST be spent in US factories.So yes, lets cut that. It won't punish the Israelis as much as the US workers who will no longer be needed. Israel will merely begin to produce its own Lavri jet which is certainly no match for the F35, but most don't really need the super F35 anyway.

Point is, the Israelis don't need the aid or money or they collapse. This is a symbiotic arrangement as most of these agreements always are.

[totaldisbelief]

simply put the US can better use that money that gets the US nothing but aggravation now.
I happy that Israel does need the money....then they won't be unhappy when it's gone.