Middle East News:

PA: Pisgat Ze'ev plan proves Israel doesn't want peace

By JPOST.COM STAFF  
12/02/2010 14:38 

Abbas aide responds to J'lem c'tee's approval of new neighborhood of 625 housing units in northeastern Jerusalem called "North Pisgat Ze'ev."

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An aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday charged that a plan to build 625 housing units in Pisgat Ze'ev proves that Israel does not want to resume peace talks, Reuters reported.

"This Israeli signal shows that they are not willing and not ready for any deal in order to resume the negotiations," Nabil Abu Rudeineh was quoted as saying. "It looks like this is an Israeli message to the Palestinians and the Americans that they are refusing any deal resuming the negotiations."

(jerusalem post)

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Israel to blame for "collapse" of talks: Abbas aide

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat waits to speak during a forum at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, November 4, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

By Tom Perry

RAMALLAH, West Bank | Thu Dec 2, 2010 1:24pm EST

(Reuters) - The United States should blame Israel for the "collapse" of the peace process, a senior Palestinian official said on Thursday, giving one of the bleakest assessments yet on recent Middle East diplomatic moves.

Israeli plans announced on Wednesday to build near East Jerusalem showed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not want to resume stalled peace talks, Palestinian officials said.

"It's time for the American administration to tell the world that Israel holds the responsibility for the collapse of this peace process," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said. "Israel has chosen settlements and not peace," he told Reuters.

The United States has been trying to revive direct negotiations between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but weeks of diplomacy have yet to yield a breakthrough.

The Palestinians want Israel to stop building on land where they aim to found an independent state, including areas in and around Jerusalem captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Abbas and Netanyahu held three rounds of direct talks in September but the Palestinians withdrew from the negotiations three weeks later when a 10-month, partial Israeli freeze on settlement building expired.

Washington has offered Netanyahu a package of inducements to persuade him to extend the moratorium by 90 days, but the Americans have not provided the written guarantees Israel wanted to back up their proposal, putting the peace talks on hold.

The U.S. Consul General to Jerusalem, Daniel Rubinstein, told Abbas on Thursday that U.S. efforts would continue with all parties, Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah said.

Abbas told Rubinstein that Israel was procrastinating.

ISRAEL "NOT WILLING" TO RESUME TALKS

George Giacaman, a political scientist at Birzeit University near Ramallah, said the U.S. failure to reach an agreement with Israel over the settlements made Washington look weak.

"Netanyahu has won so far more than one round," he said.

Israel on Wednesday announced plans for 625 new homes in Pisgat Zeev, built on West Bank land that Israel annexed to its Jerusalem municipality immediately after the 1967 war. "This Israeli signal shows that they are not willing and not ready for any deal in order to resume the negotiations," Rdainah told Reuters.

Israel sees Pisgat Zeev and other districts it has built in the Jerusalem area since 1967 as part of its capital. The Palestinians regard them as settlements, a view supported by the European Union.

Israel's building in and around Jerusalem this year has strained its ties with the United States, which says such building does not help peace negotiations.

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