Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat expressed the hope Saturday that Israel will ultimately end up destroying Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria, as it has in prior pullouts from other regions. “When Israel decided to strike peace with Egypt it tore down settlements in Sinai,” Erekat pointed out in an interview with Jordan's al-Dustour newspaper, published Saturday. “When it decided on a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, it tore down settlements in Gaza.” Many of the residents of Yamit -- one of the Jewish communities destroyed in the pullout from Sinai -- were re-traumatized a second time during their forcible expulsion from their homes in Gush Katif in 2005. Nearly 10,000 Jews were left homeless after the withdrawal, many of whom are still without permanent housing or jobs today, five years later. Nevertheless, Erekat warned that nothing less would be demanded in any final status agreement reached on a new PA country. There are more than a quarter of a million Jews living in Judea and Samaria at present. “I hope Israel knows that peace in the West Bank will demand it does so again. Peace and the settlements are two parallel lines that do not meet,” he said. Erekat expressed some pessimism about the future of the direct talks between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, accusing Israel of procrastination. The PA negotiator also said that Abbas had so far rejected all proposals offered by Netanyahu. One of those, said Erekat, had been the formation of 12 committees which would each address a different issue of the peace process. Israeli media adviser Nir Hefetz, however, denied in a statement that such a proposal had been made. “Nothing of the kind has been suggested,” he said. “On the contrary – Prime Minister Netanyahu offered the Palestinians to hold accelerated talks, once every two weeks, and in between, to have smaller, discreet meetings in order to seriously and responsibly pursue a peace agreement. The prime minister explicitly said that he believes what is necessary now is leaders' decisions not a multitude of advisers.” Netanyahu and Abbas are scheduled to meet a week from Sunday for a second round of direct talks, together with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Special Middle East Envoy George Mitchell.
