Diplomatic Pressures Rise Over Palestinians, Iran
Talks About Talks Continue
U.S. General Visits Israel
Europe Applies Pressure
Looking Back: UN Report on oPt in 2011
Israel Demolishes Settler Outposts
Talks between Israelis and Palestinians in Jordan continued this week in an ongoing effort to find a way to get back to direct negotiations. However, it seems like little progress has been made so far.
The third meeting between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators took place on Saturday, January 14 in Amman, Jordan. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and Israeli envoy Yitzhak Molcho agreed to meet again on January 25. The next day, January 26, marks the day some believe the Quartet’s timetable for submitting proposals on borders and security expires. Palestinians say they held up their end of the deal by submitting a proposal in November and point out that Israel has thus far refused to do so. Now it seems Israel’s goal is to keep the Palestinians talking past the deadline.
Before last week’s meeting, Israeli officials said Israel wants to arrange a summit between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas in March, with talks continuing in the meantime. Ynet News reports that Netanyahu would present his plan on borders and security at that summit, which will include security positions such as a demilitarized Palestinian Authority and Israeli rule in the Jordan Valley for several decades.
The meeting on January 25 will be crucial in determining whether talks of any kind will move forward. However, there is little optimism that the meeting will result in much progress. According to Ynet News, Palestinian officials stressed that Israeli positions during the talks have left little chance that direct negotiations will follow. Palestinians continue to insist Israel halt all settlement activity before negotiations can re-start.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who is hosting the talks, met with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington on Tuesday, January 17 to discuss developments in the region. The monarch expressed a glimmer of hope for progress toward direct negotiations. In an interview with the Washington Post, he said, “We all know the positions in which they have entrenched themselves. However, the intent, I believe, is there — from both sides. It is little baby steps, right at the beginning.”
U.S. General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff arrived in Israel Thursday, January 19, to convince Israel to give sanctions and diplomacy a chance before making any decisions about a military strike on Iran. He also wanted to show U.S. solidarity with Israel and emphasize the close bond between the two countries. The relationship between Israel and Washington has been strained recently in large part because Israel believes the United States and Europe aren’t being tough enough to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons.
The sanctions on Iran have forced President Obama to walk a thin line between showing support for Israel and not harming the economy this election year. Escalating tensions and the just the threat of a military confrontation with Iran would likely drive up oil prices at a time when much of the world is focused on economic recovery. Stuart E. Eizenstat, a former senior official at the Treasury and State Departments who helped draft sanctions against Iran during the Clinton administration told the New York Times, “To appear to back off, when the Iranians are proceeding pell-mell with their nuclear program, would be very difficult for the administration, particularly in an election year…On the other hand, sanctions could harm the economy and his re-election chances. It is an excruciatingly difficult set of choices, and one he will face sooner rather than later.”
On January 15, the United States postponed a joint exercise with the Israeli military to avoid escalating the situation in the region. The exercise, which sought to integrate U.S, - Israeli missile tracking and interception technology, would be geared to simulating an Iranian response to an Israeli strike on its nuclear facilities. According to reports from Inter Press Service, the Obama Administration did not want to participate unless Netanyahu could assure the U.S. president that Israel won’t attack Iran without Washington’s approval. Publically, officials said the decision was mutual and the exercise will be delayed until the second half of 2012.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak tried to ease tension with the United States ahead of Gen. Dempsey’s visit by telling an Army radio station, “We haven’t made any decision to do this [strike Iran]. This entire thing is very far off. I don’t want to provide estimates [but] it’s certainly not urgent.”
Gen. Dempsey’s short visit to Israel included meetings with Barak, Israel’s military Chief of Staff Lt. Benny Gantz, President Shimon Peres, and Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Over the past month, European officials have become increasingly outspoken over Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians and continued settlement construction. On December 20, Britain, France, Germany and Portugal released a statement condemning Israeli settlements and settler violence. The statement came after a closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council on the Middle East. The coordinated statement follows a position paper put forward recently by the EU heads of mission in Ramallah describing the diminishing possibility of a two-state solution if Israel continues to expand and build new settlements. Read more about the paper in last week’s CMEP Bulletin.
In addition to the statements on settlement practices, the French parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee issued a report earlier this month on water resources in the West Bank. The report claims Israel is implementing “apartheid” policies in its allocation of water resources in the West Bank. “Some 450,000 Israeli settlers on the West Bank use more water than the 2.3 million Palestinians that live there…In times of drought, in contravention of international law, the settlers get priority for water,” the report states. However, some members of the committee are distancing themselves from the report, accusing the author of adding “vicious propaganda” after the committee had originally approved it.
Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg slammed Israeli settlement construction, alongside President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday, January 16, in London. “Once you’ve placed physical facts on the ground that makes it impossible to deliver something that everyone has for years agreed is the ultimate destination. ... It is an act of deliberate vandalism to the basic premise on which negotiations have taken place for years and years and years,” Clegg said.
Carlo Strenger of Ha’aretz warns Israelis not to dismiss the European countries. He writes that Europe “needs to speak to the Israeli people and differentiate clearly between friendship for Israel and its condemnation of the Netanyahu government’s policies.”
Looking Back: UN Report on oPt in 2011
On Wednesday, January 18, the UN submitted its annual report on the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian Territories in a Security Council session. The report highlights the impact of the Israeli occupation, including food insecurity, violence and failing health and education services. It also reiterates that the blockade on Gaza amounts to “collective punishment.”
Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor rejected the report, accusing the Security Council of “wasting time on an issue that does not pose a humanitarian crisis.”
Israel Demolishes Settler Outposts
Early Thursday morning, Israeli security forces dismantled the illegal Israeli outpost Yisa Bracha near the West Bank settlement of Mitzpeh Jericho. As the six houses were demolished clashed erupted between the settlers and security forces. Three settlers were arrested and three were injured. Three police officers were also hurt. Also that morning, security forces razed a structure at the Oz Zion outpost. Protesters threw rocks and the police force responded with stun grenades.
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin criticized the government for removing West Bank outposts in a speech during his visit to the Migron outpost. He said the settlers, “did not come as thieves nor in an attempt to take another’s land from him.” He added they “came here with good intentions and with the support and blessing of the State of Israel.” The Israeli High Court ordered Migron to be evicted by March 2012.
According to the Israeli organization Peace Now's recent report on settlements in 2011, the Israeli government announced that it would legalize 11 formerly illegal outposts, officially recognizing 11 new settlements in the West Bank. The outposts are home to approximately 2,300 settlers.