by Shlomo Cesana and Israel Hayom Staff
Senior Israeli diplomatic official: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu willing to make significant progress toward a peace deal, but "everybody knows" that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas won't allow this • Palestinians continue to insist on preconditions for renewal of peace talks.
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, U.S. President Barack Obama and Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas meet in Washington in September 2010
|
Photo credit: AFP  |
"U.S. President Barack Obama understands today
that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is not interested in
reaching an agreement with Israel," a senior Israeli diplomatic source
has said.
According to the official, a regular
participant in policy-making, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is
willing to make significant progress toward a peace deal, but "everybody
knows" that Abbas will not allow this.
Since Obama visited Israel in March, U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry has been trying to find a way to renew
peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Kerry's efforts
have led nowhere because neither side believes talks would continue
after an opening summit.
At this point, the peace process is stalled
because of Palestinian demands for a complete settlement freeze. In
public statements that he made in Jerusalem and Ramallah, Obama rejected
preconditions for the renewal of peace talks. Yet the Palestinians
continue to insist on a number of preconditions, including, among
others, the release of more than 100 terrorists imprisoned in Israel for
attacks they committed before the signing of the Oslo Accords in the
early 1990s.
Abbas is also demanding that Netanyahu present
a map of the final borders of a Palestinian state. The Prime Minister's
Office strongly rejects this demand, saying borders should be the last
core issue discussed. Israeli officials believe Abbas is demanding a
border map to spark internal controversy in Israel over settlements that
would not remain inside the country.
The senior diplomatic official said that the
relationship between Netanyahu and Obama was "very good." The official
said Obama "opened a new page and during his recent trip to Israel
proved that he came as a friend."
Some Israeli officials point to the upcoming
2014 U.S. Congressional elections as a reason for Obama's embrace of
Israel. According to this line of thought, Obama wants to soften
Congress so that it will not thwart his plans.
But the more dominant assessment among Israeli
officials is that the Obama administration changed its tune toward
Israel due to the consequences of the Arab Spring.
"Netanyahu is prepared to reach a true peace
agreement, but everyone knows there is no partner for that at this
time," the senior diplomatic official said. He said that while Israel
was ready to make concessions and gestures, Abbas is torpedoing the
process. The official pointed at Abbas' attempt to form a unity
government with Hamas, a move that would preclude peace negotiations
between Israel and Abbas.
The official said he believed that Abbas' policy was to "stay in place."
"Abbas saw that after the disengagement
[Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip in 2005], despite the relative
strength he had there with 35,000 fighters against the 4,000 of Hamas,
Hamas expelled him," the official said. "In light of the events taking
place in Arab countries in the Middle East, he does not want the same
thing to happen in Judea and Samaria."
Meanwhile, a Palestinian official in Ramallah denied
reports over the weekend that talks had been held to arrange an
Obama-led summit between Netanyahu and Abbas. The Palestinian official
said Abbas was busy establishing a new Palestinian government in the
wake of Salam Fayyad's resignation. According to the official, Abbas
wants to set up a unity government with Hamas on the basis of the Doha
Agreement that Abbas signed with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal last year.
Shlomo Cesana and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=8891
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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