Clinton Makes Personal Bid To Resume Mideast Talks

JERUSALEM — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday that Israel is making "unprecedented" concessions on West Bank settlement construction – a position clearly at odds with the prevailing Palestinian view.

Palestinian leaders have said they will not return to peace talks with Israel unless it halts all settlement building on lands they claim for a future state, and they believe Israel has blatantly defied a U.S. demand for a settlement freeze.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, Clinton said Israel is putting significant limits on settlement activity.

"What the prime minister has offered in specifics on restraints on a policy of settlements ... is unprecedented," she said.

The issue of settlements has become the biggest sticking point in getting Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table. Clinton made it clear that she wasn't pleased with Israeli settlement construction but that it was no reason to hold up talks.

"There are always demands made in any negotiation that are not going to be fully realized," she said.

Clinton also agreed with a statement by Netanyahu that Palestinians had never demanded a settlement freeze in the past as a condition for sitting down with Israel.

Her comments appeared to represent a significant departure in tone from her previous statements demanding a total Israeli settlement freeze without exception. Israel has been resisting that demand for months, and has given no indication it would be willing to call a total freeze.

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Clinton's main aim during her one-day visit to Israel was to resuscitate the Obama administration's flagging Mideast peace push by persuading the two sides to return to talks.

But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is sticking to his refusal to resume negotiations until Israel stops building settlements. Abbas is fighting a perception among his people that he repeatedly caves in to U.S. demands.

Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh, responding to Clinton's comments, said, "There can be no excuse for the continuation of settlements, which is really the main obstacle in the way of any credible peace process.

"Israel is not interested in stopping its settlement activities and the American administration didn't succeed in convincing the Israeli government to stop these activities," he said. "There should be a real change in the Israeli position toward this issue in order for the peace process to be restarted."

Earlier in the day, a top aide to Abbas, Saeb Erekat, told The Associated Press that Abbas rejected Clinton's request that he allow Israel's government to complete building 3,000 units in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and to allow the government to construct public buildings and continue construction in east Jerusalem – a territory Palestinians hope will be their future capital.

"This is a nonstarter," Erekat said. "And that's why it's unlikely to restart negotiations."

Before visiting Israel, Clinton met with Abbas in the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi. Besides meeting Netanyahu, Clinton also held talks with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Palestinians see Jewish settlement building as one of the biggest threats to their ability to form a viable state in the territories of the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Some 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

Clinton intends to consult with a range of Arab foreign ministers on the Israel-Palestinian stalemate when she attends an international conference in Morocco on Monday and Tuesday.

At the press conference with Clinton, Netanyahu said Israel is "willing to engage in peace talks immediately without preconditions. Unfortunately the other side is not."

Hamas' control over Gaza is another main stumbling block to peace efforts. The group violently seized control of Gaza from Abbas' forces two years ago, leaving the Palestinians with rival governments. Hamas has long preached that Abbas' moderation doesn't pay and that only armed struggle will produce a Palestinian state.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the U.S. could not effectively engage in peacemaking while ignoring Hamas, and said Clinton's visit was "destined to fail."

_____

Associated Press reporter Mohammed Daraghmeh contributed to this report from Ramallah, West Bank.

Comments

[readysf]

Clintons statements are absurd. Israel has done absolutely nothing to deserve commendation.

Being evenhanded makes no sense. Being right and just does. We should pull back from this slavishly pro-Israeli posture.

[NeoconGal]

You can't expect Hillary to bite the hand that feeds her.

[MosheDayanHero]

A-rab rejectioni­sm/obsessi­ve neutoricism -the intent to destroy Is-el--continues to flourish, taking a host of forms. Rejectionist Arabs harbor conflicting designs for the territory where the J-wish state lies.
P-nians seek to form a new country that will extend from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean;
pan-Syrian nationalists want to turn "Palestine" into a component of Greater Syria;
PanArab nationalist laways invisioned Is-el's land as a province of some giant pan A-ab state;
fundamentalist Muslims kowtow dauily in hopes of establishing a Middle Eastern Cal-iphate; and so forth.
All, however, agree that Is-el must vanish from the map.

[skialethia]

Total paranoia.

[MosheDayanHero]

Your ( defeated) heroes Hamas Charter.

H-mas being a franchise of global organization M-lim Bortherhood. In U.S. represented by CAIR lobby.

"P-tine is an Is-lamic Waqf throughout all generations and to the Day of Resurrection. This is the status [of the land] in Islamic Shari’a, and it is similar to all lands conquered by Islam by force, and made thereby Waqf lands upon their conquest, for all generations of Mu-lims until the Day of Resurrection. ..."

Still dreaming of imperialism. Lucky for the world its all empty talk.

[skialethia]

Oh and laughable too. How on earth will they accomplish this napoleonic fantasy? Do they have armies, tanks and planes....­noooo, but we all know who has all the above and more, don't we? So this all boils down to projecting ones secret ambition on the other.

[MosheDayanHero]

This is not writing, this is typing.
Keep talking, someday you'll say something semi-coherent.

[US1st2009]

it never ceases to amaze how a country with the 4th strongest military in the region can turn Gaza into a septic caged swamp of millions of human beings that they regularly go into and ethnically cleanse the cage when the whim strikes them or a few unaimed bottle rockets make a pffft sound the desert.

To have to gall to continuously spread the red herring that the Palestinians want to wipe them out when that is exactly what they have been doing for decades to the Palestinians using my tax dollars is disgusting.

Stop ALL aid now! israel should pay back the hundreds of billions the US has given them in direct tax dollars, protection, and infinite other forms of support over the decades. without the US israel would not exist.

israel touts and flouts it's amazing wealth, industry,and academia while the US is in the greatest economic crisis since the Depression in large part due to the wars israel has sucked us into. time to pay US back with interest israel and SHOW what a true and special relationship we have. talk is cheap.

[flamflurm]

"All, however, agree that Is-el must vanish from the map."

Including the hard left in the US and Europe.

[brooklyncitizen]

"R i g h t."
Whatever.

[TheBaffler]

Spin on, little dreidel.

[skialethia]

The irony is that the West Bank is filled to the brim with immigrants from Eastern Block countries and thus who are accustomed to the deluded power of CENSORSHIP. That's why they and their like-minded sympathizers have redefined Anti-S to include ALL criticism of IZ and resorted to silence dissent with this tactic. Too bad they are on a different turf now and are miserably losing the war of public opinion because of this "bully" tactic.

[MosheDayanHero]

All this talk is highly amusing, of course.
But the facts remain.
There are two options available to Palestine Arabs:
1. Some sort of autonomy connected to Jordan.
2. Independent de-militarized state which gradually can develop means of proving to its neighbors ( Jordan, Israel, Egypt) its peaceful intentions.
There is NOTHING else available.
And that especially excludes old fantasies periodically revived by Palestinians such as: bi-national state, demographic take over, military conquest, Islamic Waqf etc.

[skialethia]

Speaking of "fantasies­"....stop hugging this one (Jordan, the new Palestine)­...you're a barrel of laughs...L­OL

Start thinking REALITY: growing numbers of Palestinians leading to a ONE STATE solution with EQUAL rights for all...Izra­yli or Pal....tin­ian.

[MosheDayanHero]

Having failed the miltitary and terrist option, we choose the overbreeding option. LOL

Working out REAL well for Gazans. ha-ha-ha

[MosheDayanHero]

Most people who pretend to support the P-nians ledn their support ONLY in the Holy Land but NOWHERE ELSE..
Olive trees cut? millions of posts.
But ANY CRI.ME against people with P-nians by ANY M-lim country--- crickets and hurried change of subject!!!
Therefore, such people only interested in P-nians solely as revanchist instrument against Is-el and Je.ws. Little else.
Ironically, P-nians who listen to these hypocrites who cynically use them in their hatred of all things are invariably betrayed by the very same.

Such people are famous for willing to fight I- el... to the last P-nian. From their basements in the West, of course.

[skialethia]

In America we dream of JUSTICE AND LIBERTY for ALL...that means Pals included, get it??? Oh, and please don't try and silence me with your tired, regurgitated rhetoric. I wasn't born yesterday. You should try a new script on for size; this one's getting very old...chec­k with the hazbara office...I­'m sure they have reams of new pr0puhganda.

[MosheDayanHero]

As person who considers ALL of Middle East a M-lim Wagf you are not qualified to participate in a reasoned debate on the subject.

[MosheDayanHero]

Ant.isem.i­tism: "a term used to describe prejudice against or hostility towards people of Je.w.ish lineage based upon, an historical religio-cultural aversion to their core ancestral beliefs and way of life

[skialethia]

And lately, a term use to silence dissent against crimes and injustice.

[MosheDayanHero]

Silence?! With all the ink spilled on the subject??
Come back to Earth from whatever outer space outpost you're from.

[TheLonelyGod]

Only in the minds of people with a mad-on for Israel and the Jews.

[MosheDayanHero]

Antisemitism: "a term used to describe prejudice against or hostility towards people of Jewish lineage based upon, an historical religio-cultural aversion to their core ancestral beliefs and way of life

[foxisms]

That's the use of semantics to support the revisonist version of the definition of Semitic.
As a noun it is all conclusive of the indigenous people of the middle east:
"A subfamily of Afroasiatic languages that includes Akkadian, Arabic, Aramaic, Ethiopic, Hebrew, and Phoenician­." This by implication includes all these indigenous peoples of that region.
As an adjective it remains inclusive:
"Of or pertaining to the Semites or their languages.­"
But for some reason that escapesmy sense of logic this is also part of the definition: "esp. of or pertaining to the Jews."
Why this exlusion? Perhaps because up until modern history, they were the more persecuted people and received the brunt of expressed anti-defamation.
But to be sure, Semitic includes all the native people of the Middle East and not just the Israelis.

[MosheDayanHero]

Abosulte nonsene bereft of any meaning or contextual verasity.
Fact: the term AS was invented by a Central European to EXCLUSIVELY to refer to people of J-ish faith and race in Europe. No one else.
2. I dare you to produce a SINGLE MSM article in which A-rabs refer to themselves as Semites outside of discussion on AS.

3 European Union, defintion of AS:
"AS is a certain perception of J-ews, which may be expressed as hatred toward J-ews. "

4. If fact an attempt appropriate the term is a manifestation of neo-AS. Mostly engaged by M-lims.
There's a concentrated effort to de-legitimize and appropriate exclusively J-wish terminology and and etymologies thereof. Example: Holocaust denial, AS, Jerusalem ( Al Quds), J-Temple ( claimed to be near Nablus by P-nians) etc.

[skialethia]

What a mistake Obama made appointing her as SoS. It's going to come back to bite him...that­'s what snakes do.

He made the same mistake with Lieberman.

Sometimes, I almost believe that someone has something on Obama and he's just a figurehead. With Hillary and Clinton cronies on his team...how on earth can he hold on to power?

[MosheDayanHero]

As a M-lim do you support the notion that Middle East is IsI-mic Waqf?
Yes or no.

[skialethia]

I'm NOT Muhslim...­read my words...NO­T Muhslim. Okay, now that we moved past the petty and the personal..­.what's your beef?

[skialethia]

Oh, one more thing, you should stop assuming that everying who vehemently disagrees with IZ's policies must be "Muhslim", actually, there are millions and millions of non-Muhslims who think IZ has gotten away with a lot.

[mommamia526]

Petty and personal adjectives, but no reason or argument. And you were saying...W­HAT again?

[foxisms]

Hardly delivering her services from a position of strength. Must she grovel to be of service to these estranged people? It is, after all, their problem, not ours.
She was not a good fit for this position.
Had Hillary been Speaker of the House, or riding point on HCR we would have a healh care package that would have had a much larger affect on the lives of the American people than what we're being asked to settle for.
She probably knows more on the subject than anyone in either party. She was a pioneer.
She was misassigned as SOS. Why is completely beyond me.
And why she accepted the position is (to everyones detriment) unfathonable.

[tnkeating]

How about we as a nation, who find ourselves in two wars, regardless of how we got here, stop trying to tell Israel that we know better how they should handle there affairs, instead of trying to hold them hostage with the aid we give them. Maybe one of the problems is some people in the middle east don't like being told what to do by a woman or for that matter don't even respect women.

[foxisms]

Funny you used the term "hostage".
Because that is exactly the image that comes to mind when I consider the plight of the people in Israel who are not Israeli and confined to Gaza.
I'm not talking about the radical fringe, extremists. I'm talking about the everyday Palestinian that would just like to go to work each day, enjoy basic amenities we all take for granted like fresh water, sanitation, hospitals, schools and electricit­y... and would just like to provide for their children and families.
These people can no better stop the Hamas from doing the harm they do to Israel than we in America can do can stop our gov't from the damage it has been responsible for in Iraq and Afghanistan for 8 years now.
Perhaps, rather than begging to allow us into orchestrating their peace talks in Israel, we should accept the reluctance of that country for our services and withdraw our contributions in the billions each year to their treasury.
What is the point of funding a people who refuse our efforts to help create peace when they obviously (as time has shown) cannot accomplish this on their own?

[unscum]

So Israel doesn't want to halt settlement expansion. Now, Clinton/Obama support them on that. Wayda go America for being an honest and fair broker between the two.

All the Palestinians have to do is to keep having more kids, lots of kids, both inside Israel and in the occupied territories. In a generation, the Israelis will be a minority in their own country.

[MosheDayanHero]

Yes, the overbreeding opinion is working out REAL well in Gaza, Somalia, Egypt, Pakistan etc.
Lovely.

[readysf]

Clinton says Israel has taken "unprecedented steps". Really? It has done nothing of the sort!

Why are we treating Israel with kid gloves? It is time to SETTLE this dispute and move on to other parts of the world. If it was not for our slavish support of Israel, Israel would be more motivated to settle. Isnt this plenty obvious by now?

Is AIPAC really still so powerful that it can terrorize us into continuing to behave is ways inconsistent with US interest?

[TruthJusticeForAll]

Right, especially after THEY attacked us on 9-11.

[TruthJusticeForAll]

& then they cheered as the Trade Center collased. As long as we are rewriting history...

[skialethia]

Hillary is capitalizing on her surge over Obama in the popularity polls and aligning herself with opportunism.

[mommamia526]

Hillary, Skialthea, is NOT the issue. You are beating around the bush. The issue is that the poor Palestinians will not get a thing if their *leadership* can help it. That is why they are upset with that socalled *leadership*. The *leadership* has a good thing going, and getting their accounts nicely growing, secret accounts at that, mind you. Black market profits in Gaza are extremely useful, for profiteurs. They always are, but a condition to keep getting those profits is to keep the population poor and under siege. Markups are huge, several hundred percent at least. That is always the case. And the aid, donated to improve the situation? Well,. money, again is going into the private accounts and some is invested in black market deals, tunnels to keep the illegal goods flowing in, and guns and ammunition, for which there is a huge market. Food aid? It will be confiscated by Hamas and sold at black market prices. Hillary is working hard and earning her popularity. The Obamas are doing very well also. But they really, still, are NOT the issue, Skalthea, Palestinians are the issue, Skialthea.

[MosheDayanHero]

PLO Charter:
Article 24: This Organization does not exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or in the Himmah Area. "
Remind me of my cat--I want to go outside, Oh, no.I am outside, I want to go inside.
LOL

[skialethia]

Twist and turn the facts around...o­h, I forgot...t­he truth is what you most fear. Don't worry, it's catching up...demog­raphic majority will have the last say eventually and all this jibberish will be but a moot and useless defense which it already is.

YOU CANNOT DEFEND A CRIME BY ANY MEANS.

[jackstpaul]

You posted this previously in this comment list and I refuted the meaning you imply.

[MosheDayanHero]

It says what it says. And it says nothing else. No amount of verbal gymnastics will change this.

[DannyRose]

Once again, Hillary and the O administration cave to AIPAC and then call it "unprecedented'.

[bigben1986]

I wish Hillary used her tough talk against the Israelis instead of the Pakistanis. If they complained stop the $3billion dollars aid every year even though people here are hurting and losing their houses the aid continue unabated.

[flamflurm]

The Israelis are harboring al-Qaeda? News to me.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Washington-gasps-at-Hillary-charm-el-shake-offensive-that-leaves-Islamabad-stunned/articleshow/5179112.cms

[skialethia]

Oh puhleez, save that "biased" article for someone more gullible.

[MosheDayanHero]

LOL

[skialethia]

Fanned. Yes her hypocrisy and duplicity is quite obvious isn't it?

[flamflurm]

Explain this putative hypocrisy, please. There's no symmetry here. Israel is a faithful ally while the Pakistanis harbor al-Qaeda and the Palestinians are in close with Hamas. By your measure, it was hypocritical for FDR to throw in on the side of the allies instead of the axis in WWII.