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When President Obama reopened face-to-face talks between the Israelis and Palestinians last month, he pledged that his administration would hold their hands but warned, “The United States cannot impose an agreement, and we cannot want it more than the parties themselves.”
With the negotiations deadlocked over the issue of Jewish settlements, several veterans of Middle East peacemaking said Mr. Obama’s warning had come true — only weeks after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, agreed to sit down.
As the Palestinians consider withdrawing from peace talks with Israel unless a freeze on Jewish settlement building in the West Bank is extended, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is engaged in his own calculations about whether accepting an American offer aimed at prolonging the freeze would destroy his political coalition.
Dennis Ross, a longtime Middle East expert, has emerged as a crucial, behind-the-scenes conduit between the White House and the Israeli government, working closely with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's private attorney - and also Defense Minister Ehud Barak - to discreetly smooth out differences and disputes between the two governments.
In a rare act of conciliation Tuesday, a group of rabbis from Jewish settlements near the Palestinian town of Beit Fajar visited a mosque there that had been torched by arsonists and brought Korans to replace those burned in the blaze.
The attackers, who struck early Monday, left behind Hebrew graffiti and are suspected to be radical Jewish settlers.
The rabbis, from the Gush Etzion cluster of settlements south of Bethlehem, arrived in a convoy of Israeli military government jeeps escorted by Palestinian police.
For years, the Palestinian police force has been considered by many in the West Bank and Gaza to be weak, corrupt, disconnected from the people – not to mention in cahoots with Israel.
But, in an effort to win the hearts and minds of the Palestinian grassroots, the West Bank police force has embarked on a community outreach campaign, organizing soccer clinics, town meetings, and antidrug information chats for kids.
Hamas' military wing on Wednesday threatened to target Palestinian Authority officials "if PA security forces continue to detain and sue resistance activists in the West Bank."
Al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Ubayda read a statement on behalf of 12 military groups in the Gaza Strip saying "we are fed up with the PA security's behavior in the West Bank. Over the past period, we have preferred to give reconciliation efforts all the time needed, however, we hereby say we will not remain silent for long."
West Bank farmers say they feel betrayed by the Palestinian Authority finance and agriculture ministries, after failing to meet promises of support for farmers whose land lies close to Israel's separation wall.
Speaking to Ma'an, farmers from different West Bank areas slated for confiscation for the separation wall said they signed an agreement with the Ministry of Finance, which would reimburse farmers for building water wells for irrigation at their own expense.
For the first time in two months, Palestinian farmer Abdul Qader al-Basyoni, joined by international and local peace activists, managed to enter his olive farm which is dozens of meters away from the security fence separating the Gaza Strip and Israel.
The 50-year-old man with grey hair, from the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, hurried to touch the ripe olive fruits that dangled on the branches in his deserted 20-donums (1,000 square meter) field located in the heart of a 300-meter wide no- man zone imposed by the Israeli army along its borders with the enclave in 2008.
Behind a modest desk with a view of Beit Jala sits a nameless Shin Bet security service officer who is very pleased with himself. He has just saved the Jewish people in Israel from yet another grave security risk by preventing a 47-year-old woman, for five weeks now, from going abroad for urgent medical tests.
Shin Bet forces arrested two Israeli Arabs, residents of Nazareth, on suspicion of supporting terror groups, illegal unionizing, and plotting to commit crimes, according to information released on Wednesday.
The two men, Sheikh Nazem Abu Salim and Mohammed Naarani, will be tried in the Nazareth Magistrate's court, which issued a gag order on the details of the investigation.
A Haaretz investigation reveals that since the building freeze in the West Bank was lifted ten days ago, bulldozers have been working furiously on the construction of 350 new housing units in various settlements.
As the end of the freeze approached, the settlements have made great efforts to launch a massive building campaign in response. The Yesha Council has expressed satisfaction at the large amount of construction that has taken place so far.
The Palestinian Authority said on Tuesday that it had won the backing of Egypt, Jordan and several other Arab countries for its refusal to return to the negotiating table unless Israel extended the moratorium on settlement construction.
The announcement was made following a meeting in Cairo between PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
A senior PA official in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post that the US administration was now talking about the possibility of extending the moratorium by an additional three months to avoid the collapse of the peace talks.
Since its inception in Oslo almost two decades ago, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been stymied by the dysfunctional political systems of both sides. Hostage of an impossible coalition and of a settlement movement of freelance fanatics, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu's leadership is seriously compromised. His Palestinian counterparts are hardly in a better position.
Following reports of an unprecedented U.S. offer of a host of assurances in return for a 60-day extension of the freeze on building in West Bank settlements, some political analysts are wondering why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not grabbed the deal with both hands.
According to the reports, President Obama is offering Netanyahu pledges that the United States will:
* Not ask for additional extensions on the partial ban on settlement building, which expired Sept. 26;
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said Tuesday that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would take away much of the motivation for terrorism around the world.
He described the long-running conflict as the key problem in the region and said resolving it would have a knock on effect that could result in Syria ending its support for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Iran turning back its controversial nuclear program.
Links:
[1] http://www.americantaskforce.org/print/15675
[2] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printmail/15675
[3] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printpdf/15675
[4] http://www.americantaskforce.org/rss/wpr
[5] https://www.americantaskforce.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1
[6] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/world/middleeast/06diplo.html?_r=1&ref=middleeast
[7] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/world/middleeast/06mideast.html?ref=middleeast
[8] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/05/AR2010100506225.html
[9] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/05/AR2010100504672.html
[10] http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/1005/Can-Palestinian-police-get-respect-through-soccer-clinics
[11] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=321437
[12] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=321375
[13] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2010-10/06/c_13544536.htm
[14] http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israel-is-now-punishing-palestinians-shamelessly-1.317415
[15] http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/imam-from-nazareth-suspected-of-supporting-terror-groups-1.317518
[16] http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/10-days-after-settlement-freeze-expires-350-new-units-under-construction-1.317467
[17] http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=190322
[18] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/06/netanyahu-abbas-palestinian-legitimacy-deficit
[19] http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/10/05/2741149/for-netanyahu-to-accept-new-freeze-us-might-have-to-sweeten-the-deal
[20] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101005/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_mideast_bill_clinton
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