Submit your comments on this article | ||||
Israel-Palestine-Jordan | ||||
Paleos: Netanyahu is 'sabotaging' peace efforts | ||||
2009-06-15 | ||||
An aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that the speech "sabotages" regional peace efforts, due to Netanyahu's refusal to accept an influx of Palestinian refugees into Israel and his unwillingness to compromise on the status of Jerusalem. "Netanyahu's remarks have sabotaged all initiatives, paralysed all efforts being made and challenges the Palestinian, Arab and American positions," said Nabil Abu Rudeinah.
He described Netanyahu's setting of a condition of demilitarization as a condition for Israel agreeing to a Palestinian state as "detail". "Our main demand is the end of the occupation and finding a fair solution for Palestinian refugees and halting settlements," Abu Rudeinah said. "Other details should be resolved in negotiations."
"The alternative is to make Netanyahu abide by the road map," he said, referring to a U.S.-sponsored document under which Israel agreed to freeze settlement activity and Palestinians agreed to rein in militants hostile to Israel. "The peace process has been moving at the speed of a tortoise," negotiator Saeb Erekat said. "Tonight, Netanyahu has flipped it over on its back."
"[Netanyahu] spoke about a Palestinian state, [but only] after he removed from it the issue of Jerusalem, placed the issue of refugees outside negotiations, placed security outside negotiations when he spoke about a demilitarized Palestinian state," he said. Erekat also said that there was no chance of Palestinian ever approving Netanyahu's vision for their state. "He will have to wait 1,000 years before he finds one Palestinian who will go along with him with this feeble state," said Erekat. Erekat, one of the senior negotiators on Abbas's team, said Palestinians needed to overcome the differences that have seen Hamas Islamists opposed to both Abbas and to interim accords reached with Israel seize control of the Gaza Strip. Hours before Netanyahu's address, Palestinian officials said that a "yes or no" decision faces the Israeli leader regarding Middle East peace. "What's required from Mr Netanyahu is a yes or a no - two states, accept agreements signed and to stop settlement activities including natural growth," Erekat had said. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, himself at loggerheads with Hamas, has said talks with Israel cannot resume until Netanyahu halts settlement and accepts a two-state solution. In the Gaza Strip, Hamas representatives vehemently rejected Netanyahu's address. "In his speech, he ... erased the Palestinian refugees' right of return," said senior Hamas leader Ismail Radwan, adding that the prime minister also did not "recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the independent Palestinian state." Radwan rejected Netanyahu's demand that Palestinians recognize Israel's Jewish character. "His speech is a slap in the face of all those who have opted for the choice of negotiations with Israel," he added. "What needs to be done immediately is to sever all ties with Israel." The Hamas movement rejects a two-state solution to the conflict withIsrael and opposes negotiations with Israel. | ||||
Posted by:Steve White |
#2 How about he is looking after national interests?--what leaders are supposed to do. |
Posted by: JohnQC 2009-06-15 14:30 |
#1 Sabotaging negotiations is *our* gig! Find another street corner, Bibi! |
Posted by: Mitch H. 2009-06-15 13:26 |