Hours after the Arab League supported U.S.-mediated talks with Israel, it began adding conditions, but no one apparently wants to be accused of saying ”no,” and the discussions are scheduled to resume, possibly this week.
Palestinian Authority chief negotiator Saeb Erekat reiterated that the talks must end with a fulfillment of PA demands within four months, but Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad al-Thani said Saturday night that the limit should be two months unless there are clear signs of progress.
An Israeli temporary freeze on building new homes for Jews in Judea and Samaria ends in appropximately four months. and the U.S. State Department has stated that it will be nearly impossible to reach an agreement by then.
Although Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu welcomed the Arab League's support of talks and said, "This time the talks will take place without pre-conditions, unlike in the previous 16 years,” chief Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat, immediately placed a pre-condition. "If Israel builds one house” in parts of Jerusalem it considers to be part of a future PA state or in Judea and Samaria, the PA “will immediately stop the negotiations.” he warned.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat has denied reports of a de facto building freeze in united Jerusalem, which includes all of the areas restored to Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967, but virtually all parties involved in the bureaucratic process agree that approvals for new housing have been stalled.
Both the PA and Israel have submitted to U.S. President Barack Obama’s demands for a return to mediated discussions with neither side wanting to be blamed for denying the American administration an opportunity to claim a diplomatic success.
Resuming talks fits the PA's announced strategy of biding time while building international support for a unilateral proclamation of the Palestinian Authority as an independent country based in Jerusalem.
Indirect talks, which were held only once several weeks ago, actually is a step backwards to 16 years ago, when the PA and Israel would not sit down in the same room for direct negotiations. The PA broke off direct negotiations nearly two years ago.
The distrust between the two sides is openly admitted. “We don’t trust the Israeli side and we have said this before. We found positive indicators from the U.S. mediator and we are now talking to the U.S. mediator," Qatari’s al-Thani said.
The PA speaks of “negotiations” on pre-conditions for a PA state to include areas of Jerusalem where 300,000 Jews now live, including the Old City and the Western Wall. It also demands the regions of Judea and Samaria, where another 300,000 Jews reside.
Years of concessions to PA and international demands have left Israel holding Jerusalem and the status of foreign Arabs claiming ancestry in Israel as the only remaining “red lines.”
The Obama administration has repeated labeled as ”illegitimate” a Jewish presence in the areas claimed by the PA. However, wide support for Netanyahu within his government and from most polls have strengthened Israel’s hand against surrendering “united Jerusalem” as well as towns in Judea and Samaria that are heavily populated with Jews and which are considered strategically important.
The immediate issue is the timing of the American-mediated talks, with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying they will begin this week. U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell is expected to return to the region early this week to begin making arrangements for discussions.
