JERUSALEM: The Palestinians on Sunday said Washington’s backing for Israeli refusal to halt Jewish settlement expansion had killed any hope of reviving peace negotiations soon.
Israel on the other hand savored a diplomatic victory after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday night praised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for making an “unprecedented” offer of “a restraint on the policy of settlements.”
Speaking before the weekly Israeli Cabinet meeting, Science Minister Daniel Hershkowitz proclaimed: “The US administration understands what we have always said — that the real obstacle to negotiations are the Palestinians.”
On Saturday, Clinton endorsed Israel’s view that settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank should not be a bar to resuming negotiations — contradicting the Palestinian position.
US President Barack Obama himself, after persuading Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in September to meet Netanyahu in New York, called only for “restraint” in settlement, not the “freeze” he had previously proposed.
Stung by Obama’s about-face and Clinton’s remarks, the Palestinians voiced their frustration. “The negotiations are in a state of paralysis, and the result of Israel’s intransigence and America’s backpedaling is that there is no hope of negotiations on the horizon,” Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudainah said.
He said the Palestinians were calling for the Arab League to formulate a “unified Palestinian-Arab position” on the stalled peace process. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said: “Pressuring Palestinians to make further concessions to accommodate Israeli intransigence is not the answer.”
“I believe that the US condones continued settlement expansion,” Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib said.
“Calling for a resumption of negotiations despite continued settlement construction doesn’t help because we have tried this way many times,” Khatib added. “Negotiations are about ending the occupation and settlement expansion is about entrenching the occupation.”
