Peace in the Middle East ?

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[Sirenoftitan]

The US has launched a new effort to finalise terms for fresh negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.  In talks with Israeli leaders, US envoy George Mitchell has been discussing the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank - a key stumbling block.  Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8253764.stm

[Sirenoftitan]

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell is extending his mission to press for a deal on freezing Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.  He has held an extra unscheduled meeting with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, with another due on Friday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8258484.stm

[Sirenoftitan]

The US envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, appeared today to have failed to win an agreement from Israel on a halt to settlement construction in the Palestinian territories.

A deal would have laid the foundations for a meeting planned for next week at the UN in New York between President Barack Obama, the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. That now seems less likely to go ahead.

US fails to broker deal with Israel over settlements by Rory McCarthy, The Guardian

[Sirenoftitan]

Barack Obama will hold a joint meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, on Tuesday to help restart peace talks between the two sides, the White House said last night.

The US President, who will be in New York for the UN General Assembly this week, will meet with each leader separately before convening the joint session. The US Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, who is credited with helping the Northern Ireland peace process, recently returned from a shuttle diplomacy trip to Jerusalem and Arab capitals.

Obama calls joint talks with leaders of Israel and Palestine by Jeff Mason, The Independent on Sunday

[Sirenoftitan]

Barack Obama failed to achieve a hoped-for breakthrough aimed at the resumption of Middle East negotiations yesterday during a three-way meeting with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in New York.

The president had only one success to show for months of effort: a tentative handshake between the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who met for the first time since the Israeli leader took office in March.

A reluctant handshake - but no deal as Middle East plan falters by Ewen MacAskill and Ian Black, The Guardian

[Sirenoftitan]

Palestinian political leaders have expressed acute disappointment in the Obama administration, saying their hopes that it could bring peace to the Middle East have "evaporated" and accusing the White House of giving in to Israeli pressure.

The unusually frank comments come in an internal memo from the Fatah party, led by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, but reflect a broader frustration among Palestinian politicians that Washington's very public push for peace in the Middle East has yet to produce even a restarting of peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

Palestinian faith in Obama 'evaporates' by Rory McCarthy, The Guardian

[Sirenoftitan]

The Middle East peace process was on the brink of collapse last night as Britain and other European countries failed to back Israel in a key vote at the United Nations.

A furious Israel threatened to pull out of peace talks if the UN Human Rights Council endorses today a controversial report condemning the Jewish state for war crimes during the Gaza offensive in January.

UN row threatens to sink Middle East peace plan by Catherine Philp, Philip Webster and James Hider, The Times

[Sirenoftitan]

A vote to endorse a highly critical report (pdf) on the Gaza war passed at the UN human rights council in Geneva today, despite opposition from the US and Israel.

The council approved a resolution endorsing the report, which was written by the South African judge Richard Goldstone and accused Israel and the Islamist group Hamas of war crimes during the Gaza war.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/16/gaza-war-crimes-un-vote

[Sirenoftitan]

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in the Middle East for talks seeking to restart the stalled peace process.  She will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the United Arab Emirates before heading to Jerusalem to see Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.  Speaking earlier to the BBC, Mrs Clinton said a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians remained a "high priority" for the United States.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8335211.stm

[Sirenoftitan]

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, sought to deflect the anger and disappointment of pro-western Arab states today after backing Israel's position that it did not need to freeze settlement activity as a prelude to resuming peace talks with the Palestinians.

Clinton was due to meet foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other key Arab states at a G8 conference in Morocco after brief talks in Jerusalem and Ramallah at the weekend. In what appeared to be a significant policy shift she publicly supported the position taken by Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's Likud prime minister, and even praised him for making "unprecedented" concessions.

Arab anger as Hillary Clinton backs Israel on settlements by Ian Black, The Guardian

[Sirenoftitan]

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, was forced into an awkward diplomatic pirouette yesterday, insisting to Arab foreign ministers that Washington had not capitulated to Israel's continuing hunger for new Jewish settlements even if statements she had made 24 hours earlier seemed to imply exactly that.

Clinton backtracks on Israeli settlements after Arab anger by David Usborne, The Independent

[Sirenoftitan]

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, announced tonight his surprise decision not to run in next year's presidential election in frustration at the lack of progress in resuming peace talks with Israel.

Abbas, who became president nearly five years ago, had been expected to seek re-election, despite the deep factional divisions among his own people and the deadlock in returning to peace talks. But he said the Palestinians were "at a crossroads"

Mahmoud Abbas will not seek re-election as Palestinian president by Rory McCarthy, The Guardian

[Sirenoftitan]

Palestinian leaders from President Mahmoud Abbas down have alarmed Israeli ministers by swinging their weight behind a planned effort to secure UN backing for a unilaterally declared independent state in the West Bank and Gaza.

In an innovative strategy which would not depend on the success of currently stalled negotiations with Israel, the leaders are preparing a push to secure formal UN Security Council support for a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders as a crucial first step towards the formation of a state.

Palestinian push for an independent state causes Israeli alarm by Donald Macintyre, The Independent

[Sirenoftitan]

The United States has voiced its "dismay" over Israel's approval of 900 additional housing units at a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the move makes it "more difficult" to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.  He was speaking shortly after planning applications for the new units had been approved by Israel's interior ministry.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8364815.stm

[Sirenoftitan]

The Palestinian Authority has reacted negatively to Israel's offer to temporarily restrict construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank.  Chief negotiator Sayeb Erekat said any settlement freeze that did not include East Jerusalem was unacceptable.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the 10-month restriction was part of a policy he hoped would give a new impetus to peace talks.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8379868.stm

[Sirenoftitan]

Israel yesterday reacted angrily to a draft EU proposal for East Jerusalem to be a future Palestinian capital that allows the possibility of endorsing a unilaterally declared Palestinian state.

A draft policy document by the Swedish EU presidency, if approved next week by European foreign ministers, would significantly harden the EU's support for the likely Palestinian stance in any on-going negotiations on a two-state solution.

EU Palestine move enrages Israelis by Donald Macintyre, The Independent

[Forty Watt]

This story came out of left field, for me at least.

Israel has reacted angrily to an arrest warrant issued, and later withdrawn, by a British court against Tzipi Livni, Israel's former foreign minister, over her role during Israel's war on Gaza.

Speaking on Israeli army radio on Tuesday, Israel's ambassador to the UK urged Britain to change the law, which has allowed groups to pursue charges against non-citizens for alleged crimes committed outside the UK.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/12/2009121591430318635.html

Livni canceled a visit to London, but there are conflicting accounts of her reasons.

Livni wanted to meet British PM Gordon Brown. He declined. The rationale behind Livni's desire to meet Brown, speculate some, was that if her trip was in an official capacity, she would have been granted diplomatic immunity.
 
When Brown declined to meet with the Kadima opposition chairwoman, the trip was reduced to a private one - leaving her susceptible to an arrest.
 
A similar arrest warrant against Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, was deferred indefinitely because he had diplomatic immunity as a visiting official when he came to the UK in September.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2009/12/15/true-lies

[Sirenoftitan]

<snip>
In summary: UN resolutions, Geneva conventions, previous agreements between Israelis and Palestinians, the Arab peace initiative, and official policies of the US and other nations are all being ignored. In the meantime, the demolition of Arab houses, expansion of Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and Palestinian recalcitrance threaten any real prospect for peace.

Gaza must be rebuilt now Comment by Jimmy Carter, The Guardian

[Sirenoftitan]

Aid agencies have strongly criticised the international community for failing to help bring an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza.  The charities made the accusation in a report published just ahead of the anniversary of Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8425698.stm

[Forty Watt]

Aid convoy breaks Gaza siege

A humanitarian aid convoy carrying food and medical supplies has arrived in the Gaza Strip nearly a month after it embarked from the UK.

Members of the much-delayed Viva Palestina convoy began passing through Egypt's Rafah border crossing into Gaza on Wednesday, waving Palestinian flags and raising their hands in peace signs.

[...]

Galloway, the convoy organiser, said the mission represents only "a drop in the ocean" as long as the siege on Gaza continues.

"No number of convoys is going to solve the problems here," he told Al Jazeera.
 
"So we're not only trying to bring in aid, we're trying to show the world there is a siege.

Are we listening?