George Mitchell To Press Netanyahu Yet Again On Settlements

JERUSALEM — Washington's special envoy to the Mideast on Wednesday wrapped up his second meeting this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu without reaching an agreement on curtailing Israeli settlement construction.

U.S. official George Mitchell will sit down with Netanyahu for a third time on Friday, Netanyahu's office said in a statement. Mitchell made no comment after Wednesday's meeting.

The U.S. has a lot on the line, having reached out very publicly to the Arab and Muslim world and taken an uncharacteristically tough stand against Israeli construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Washington is also working against time: the Obama administration hopes to bring Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas together in New York next week as a prelude to renewed peacemaking. That could be difficult without some headway on the controversial settlements.

The Palestinians claim the West Bank and east Jerusalem – captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war – as part of a future state and have demanded a complete construction freeze. The Obama administration has echoed that demand.

Netanyahu has offered a temporary moratorium on construction in the West Bank that would last several months. But he says the moratorium won't apply to some 3,000 apartments that already have been approved – some of them as late as last week. And he also has refused to halt building in east Jerusalem.

Israel annexed that sector of the disputed city after the 1967 war, and does not consider it a settlement. The annexation has not been internationally recognized, and the Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of their hoped-for state.

Netanyahu hopes his proposal for a limited freeze will be enough to please the U.S. without risking the stability of his coalition government, dominated by hardline settler patrons like himself.

But the Palestinians and the U.S. have dug in and rejected his proposals.

Failure to reach a compromise could scuttle any meeting between Netanyahu and Abbas next week on the sidelines of a U.N. General Assembly meeting. The two men have not met face-to-face since Netanyahu took office in March.

There has been speculation that President Barack Obama would attend such a meeting to give it added heft.

Mitchell also traveled to Lebanon on Wednesday, briefing President Michel Suleiman on his efforts to revive negotiations, according to a statement issued by the president's office.

Mitchell did not speak to reporters after the Lebanon meeting.

Comments

[SpoonieLuv]

I don't understand why the President is still leaving the Israelis with a voice in the matter. No evictions means no military or economic welfare. It's that simple.

[murphy80]

ok, who will blink first.

i doubt if Obama will.

[rissole]

I think you are wasting your time there George. Netanyahu doesn't want peace. Never did and never will. Why should God's chosen people have peace with anyone.

[Kirby]

They have Uncle Sam by his scrotum because they are in control of our Congress, the Media, and PAC monies to reelect and elect all officials at the state and city positioins as well. Right now there is an underground, under the table, movement to jack up the level of verbal noise - as much as possible - to discredit the President of the United States, and to weaken him, so that he cannot successfully move Israel into a viable comprehensive peace settlement with the Palestinians. The email stories being circulated, and the voice of discontent being fomented have most of their origins from that source. Does Obama really know what he is really up against? The AJC, its AIPAC, Israeli fanatics, and the American neo-cons are responosible for
this, and they are willing to cause extreme violence in the U. S., and above all, to destroy Barack Obama. Does anyone doubt that they have the know-how and power to do it?
The health care issues are being used by these people to rabble rouse, so they can STOP OBAMA in the quest for Middle East Peace.

[yaskeptik]

I know you are retired, so maybe not as sharp as used to be, but you forgot the banks and Hollywood and blood for the matza.

Relax, Obama going to be just fine. A bit more give and take, it's called negotiations, that's all. Thanks goodness he is a smart man who knows to keep distance from the fundamentalists you are representing here

[mark67nyc]

Stop the insanity!!

It's an insult the the US, rightly or wrongly the only superpower, should have to dance around Israel all the time..... let alone, upset the Jewish lobby. Whatever happened to representational power?? A small, neurotic bully makes a dangerous neighbor and member of the world community.

[murphy80]

interesting, let's see which side is bluffing.

Obama will never sign off on a part heid.

[myopinion2]

JPost reported today that Uri Beilin, the Israeli lead negotiator at Taba and the co-author (the co-author was a former PA negotiator) of the 2003 Geneva Peace Initiative, announced a new campaign to promote the Geneva Peace initiative both in Israel and with the PA. The Geneva Plan calls for Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank except for the urban settlement blocs adjacent to the Green Line, with 100% land compensation also adjacent to the Green Line, the division of East Jerusalen along Jewish and Arab neighborhoods, the resettlement of Palestinian refugees in the new Palestinian state, with monetary compensation and limited family reunification within Israel., and a demilitarized Palestinian state with robust security forces but no army, instead international force guaranteeing the integrity of its borders. This is the only realistic outline for a peace treaty. Both the US and the EU should publically and aggressively pressure Israel and the PA to undertake final negotiations on this basis.

[jwcmass]

This is a proposal which sounds reasonable.

By the way, do you mean Yossi Beilin?

[DC]

Give it up. Israel can do what it wants. The plan is and always has been to get the territories of the biblical myths. Accept it. It will happen in spite of the charade of negotiations, peace initiatives, etc.

The US government has always supported this -- it supported the establishment of a Zionist State, (for its own reasons of expansion and influence) it has tolerated assassins of US officials by the Israeli state for the bigger Zionist cause. Face it, Israel is the 51 state. Accept it or leave the US.

The Israeli government and the US government are the same.

[mcantwell]

Mitchell: Just come back to the U.S. and forget the Friday meeting with BiBi. Enough is Enough.

[breakfast]

Israel, certainly the current Israeli government, has no intention of ever abandoning any West Bank land. They want more land and an ethnically pure Jewish State.

Cut off aid to Israel.

[jimmygee]

This guy needs to be brought to bear for constant aggression towards the Palestinians. I know the Palestinians are not the most innocent people but having to endure the harassment of one of the mightiest armies in the world for all these years can get on ones nerves.

[pseudochristians]

maybe bibi can tell us why israel attacked the uss liberty?

[rissole]

Why not. Israel didn't want anyone listening to the radio chatter while they and their allies were carrying out a slaughter in Lebanese refugee camps. They knew that the US wouldn't let the death of some of there servicemen get in the way of the special arrangement.

[yaskeptik]

Let me try: In short I do not know, but there are theories some more plausible than others. This is what I thik happened:
1967, Israel engaged in a war where their enemies aim to end it's existance.
Israelis detected intelligence leak thru British forces to Soviets in Cypress so they told NATO to keep away so many miles from the theater.
NATO agreed, so possibly IDF thought that Liberty is not the US Navy Liberty and attacked to make sure that no intelligence is passed on enemy. There was a war after all and intelligence leaks cost a lot of human lifes during wars. On other hand in a hectic environment of the war numerous and very unfortunate mistakes in communication and handling of the information were made by both sides. Unfortunately there are people on both sides trying to make quick buck profiting on the tragic deaths of US sailors.
BTW Israelis admitted liability and paid settlement to the survivors.
Wars are horrible. There are numerous cases of a friendly fire accidents. Wasn't it responsible for most US loses and 9 british soldiers during Gulf War I in 1991?

[jwcmass]

Perhaps a better question would be whay was Israel illegally spying on the US (Jonathan Pollard, et al?)

I believe the Liberty Incident to be that of friendly fire-- it happens in all wars.

but espionage is a deliberat act.-- and on an (unofficial) ally-- who happens to give large amounts of money to Israel every year?

Not so accidental.

[HopeGrenade]

I like how us pulling out of Iraq would have been showing how weak we are to everyone else. But us bending over backwards for a country the size of New Jersey whose military is almost entirely supported by us does nothing to our reputation.

Hard way: Talk to hardliners who, like Republicans, have every reason to deny the request.
Easy way: No guns for you. See how the negotiations go then.

[Chaplinesque]

The last line (about Obama giving the meeting "heft" has almost a punchline ring to it. Very amusing.

Good show, though. A third meeting with this guy? If I didn't know as much as I already do, I might be convinced that Washington actually cares about ending the injustice. But this incessant need to look "busy" by engaging the same stubborn leaders (who don't even pretend to be open to a reasonable solution) is the giveaway. No one serious about achieving peace and justice in Palestine would ever talk to Netanyahu.

[Macready]

you are so right . . . the only options are: UN sanctions, trade embargoes, and end to all US financial and military funding . . . breaking international law . . . no umbrella for the zionists .. . and israel must be made to sign up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to the Geneva Convention -- israel must adhere to international law or they will be ostracised . . end of story . . . every time there is a settlement freeze the zionists build more settlements . . . . time to end the charades . . .

[Macready]

the solution is simple: UN sanctions, trade embargoes, and an end to all US funding and military support . . . israel is playing the same old game and Washington is making the same responses .. end result . . . more loss of land and rights for the Palestinians . . . . and while Mitchell is there is should get israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and sign up to the Geneva Convention . . .

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/israel+and+hamas+aposwar+crimesapos+in+gaza/3345017

[NALLY]

I believe that Isreal has a God given right to exist, but they also need to recognize other countries rights also. We can't just give Isreal a green light of support for whatever they should desire to do. That being said, bring of the pro and con comments to my blog.

[DC]

It is God given and it is the duty of all Americans to give their life and blood to support this god given right.