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After three weeks of fruitless haggling with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Obama administration has given up its effort to persuade the Israeli government to freeze construction of Jewish settlements for 90 days, a senior administration official said Tuesday.
The decision leaves Middle East peace talks in flux, with the Palestinians refusing to resume direct negotiations absent a moratorium, and the United States struggling to find another formula to bring them back to the table. It is another setback in what has proved to be a star-crossed campaign by President Obama.
The Obama administration has abandoned its effort to persuade Israel to renew a settlement construction freeze, which U.S. diplomats had hoped would invigorate moribund peace talks with the Palestinians.
With senior Israeli and Palestinian negotiators scheduled to hold talks in Washington next week, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton due to deliver a major Middle East speech Friday, it was unclear what direction the administration's policy will now take.
The US admission that it has given up on securing an Israeli settlement freeze, coupled with Latin American's growing support for Palestinian statehood – with or without a peace deal – has pushed the faltering Israeli-Palestinian peace process to the brink.
Late yesterday, a senior US diplomat said that the Obama administration, which had made a settlement freeze the kingpin of its peacemaking efforts, had dropped its bid to secure a second moratorium from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose right-wing coalition partners had strongly opposed such a measure.
The United Nations expressed concern Tuesday over Hamas authorities' closure of the Sharek Youth Forum, a large independent NGO in Gaza.
"I am very concerned about the recent forced closing of Sharek Youth Forum in Gaza. Sharek is an important NGO partner of the United Nations in its work on behalf of children and the youth in Gaza," said Maxwell Gaylard, the UN humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian territories.
Israeli tank shelling injured three Palestinians Wednesday east of Gaza City, medics said.
The three hurt in the incident, near the Karni crossing, were not identified.
An Israeli military spokesman said that "an IDF force fired tank rounds toward a number of suspicious individuals who approached the security fence in the northern Gaza Strip.
"The men were approaching the fence with the intention of planting explosive devices," he added. "The force confirmed that the suspects had been hit and there were no injuries to IDF soldiers."
President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday said peace talks with Israel were in crisis after Washington's decision to drop its demand for a new freeze on settlement building in the occupied West Bank.
"There is no doubt that there is a crisis," Abbas said after his meeting with Prime Minister George Papandreou in Athens.
Abbas said he hoped the European Union would get involved in relaunching the negotiations. "We hope that the time will soon come when the EU will play a role alongside the United States."
The Palestinians said on Wednesday "Israeli obstinacy" made Washington give up on efforts to freeze Jewish settlement and questioned whether the United States could ever help them attain independence.
Senior Palestinian official Yasser Abed Rabbo said that with its bid to revive direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations now at a dead-end, the United States was proposing a return to indirect talks to try to unstick a peace process in deep crisis.
Israel has allowed the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip to export flowers through Israeli territory, in addition to strawberries it permitted earlier, officials said on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement Israel's security cabinet had approved an "additional easing of restrictions to permit and expansion of commercial exports from the Gaza Strip," without giving details.
The United States is weighing a return to indirect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks following its failure to revive direct negotiations because of disagreements over Israeli settlement construction, two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said on Tuesday.
A top Palestinian official on Wednesday questioned Washington's ability to forge Middle East peace after a new breakdown in American attempts to revive negotiations.
The U.S. failure to persuade Israel to renew a limited freeze on construction in West Bank Jewish settlements, announced late Tuesday, was the latest setback for the Obama administration in its quest to broker a peace deal by September. That goal, a top priority of the president, appears increasingly in doubt.
The Palestinians' Plan B — an alternative to the elusive peace deal with Israel — is gradually taking shape: convince as many countries as possible to recognize a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, and use that to lobby the United States not to veto recognition by the U.N. Security Council.
A senior Palestinian official revealed on Wednesday that the United States informed the Palestinian leadership that it wants to hold separate peace talks with Israel and the Palestinians.
"We received an oral letter from the American Administration expressing its desire to hold separate talks with Israel and the Palestinians over the peace process," Yasser Abed Rabbo, Secretary General of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee told Voice of Palestine Radio.
Israel Defense Forces soldiers recently resumed the use of prohibited tear gas canisters to disperse demonstrations in the West Bank.
His comments come hours after the US admitted that it had failed to get Israel to renew its settlement curbs.
Mr Abbas suspended talks in September after a 10-month halt on Israeli building in the occupied West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, expired.
The US has vowed to find other ways to bring the two sides together.
The peace talks resumed in Washington in September after a break of almost two years, but broke down just weeks later over the settlement issue.
US sweeteners
A Princeton student referendum on whether to ask the university's dining services to provide an alternative brand of hummus to Sabra was defeated.
Some 1,014 students voted against the referendum and 699 students were in favor during the three days of voting last week, according to results announced Dec. 3, the Daily Princetonian student newspaper reported.
Seasons may change, but renewal is never a guarantee. This is especially true for Middle Eastern peace, where an autumn of possibility has given way to a winter of discontent.
Latin American support for a Palestinian state may be one way to help break the ice. This week Argentina and Uruguay joined the BRIC heavyweight Brazil in recognising an independent Palestine. Bolivia and Ecuador are expected to follow suit.
Links:
[1] http://www.americantaskforce.org/print/16626
[2] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printmail/16626
[3] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printpdf/16626
[4] http://www.americantaskforce.org/rss/wpr
[5] https://www.americantaskforce.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1
[6] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/world/middleeast/08diplo.html?_r=1&ref=middleeast
[7] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/07/AR2010120707310.html
[8] http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/1207/US-admits-defeat-on-Israeli-settlement-freeze.-Can-it-still-broker-peace
[9] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=339838
[10] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=340032
[11] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=340013
[12] http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/palestinians-criticise-us-peace-process-in-crisis/
[13] http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/israel-allows-gaza-to-add-flowers-to-farm-exports/
[14] http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/us-mulls-reviving-indirect-middle-east-peace-talks/
[15] http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/palestinians-question-us-ability-to-forge-peace-1106381.html
[16] http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/palestinians-seek-unilateral-statehood-recognition-1105256.html
[17] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-12/08/c_13640700.htm
[18] http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/idf-resumes-use-of-prohibited-tear-gas-canisters-1.329414
[19] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11946465
[20] http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/12/07/2742066/princeton-student-hummus-referrendum-defeated
[21] http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/editorial/the-peace-process-is-not-captive-to-israeli-intransigence
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