Tag: Arab League Foreign Ministers

Obama + company get four more weeks to try for Israeli-Palestinian talks

Arab League Foreign Ministers meeting yesterday [Friday] a day ahead of an Arab summit meeting of heads of state, decided (1) to support Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas [Abu Mazen] in his resistance to continuing “direct” talks with Israel that restarted, sort of, in September, under the auspices of the Obama administration, and (2) to give the whole thing one more month [that is, until after the American mid-term congressional elections].

The U.S. has welcomed this decision.

In the meantime, Arab League Foreign Ministers [the Follow-up Committee] will meet again in about two weeks to discuss proposals that Abu Mazen is expected to present.

Several reports in the Palestinian media today — now picked up by the international news agencies and the Israeli media — suggest that Abu Mazen + company will suggest either (1) requiring U.S. recognition of a Palestinian State within the borders that existed on the eve of the June 1967 war, or (2) going to the UN Security Council to seek UN membership for such a Palestinian State.

The Jerusalem Post has just published an AFP report saying that “Another option was to demand that the United Nations place the Palestinian territories under an international mandate”… This is posted here.

Meanwhile, a marked construction boom has begun (or resumed) in East Jerusalem [particularly since the end of Ramadan].

Continue reading Obama + company get four more weeks to try for Israeli-Palestinian talks

Quote of the day – (9th in our series)

As Arab Foreign Ministers convene in Sirte, Libya, today, a day ahead of an Arab Summit meeting in Sirte, to discuss whether or not to endorse continued Israeli-Palestinian negotiations while Israeli settlement-building also continues in the West Bank [+ related matters], Akiva Eldar wrote in Haaretz today that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas [Abu Mazen] told U.S. Special Middle East envoy George Mitchell last week that he will resign IF… Israel continues to build settlements in the West Bank.

There has been a flurry of Abu Mazen resignation reports in recent weeks, some of which were mentioned previously on our blog.

The Jerusalem Post, for example, reported that Abbas “has returned to his old habit of threatening to resign if Israel does not comply with his demands, making his latest threat during a meeting in Jordan on Wednesday night with members of the Palestine National Council, the PLO’s parliament- in-exile”. This was actually said to be just a hint, and is posted here.

Arab League Ministers had suggested that they would consider taking the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative off the table IF… Israel continues to build settlements in the West Bank.

It is a good example of the boogey-man approach.

In his Haaretz story, Akiva Eldar reported that “Abbas’s resignation means the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority, since it was agreed inside the government that no one from the leadership of Fatah will step up to replace Abbas as president, and no new elections will be held … Abbas’s resignation means the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority, since it was agreed inside the government that no one from the leadership of Fatah will step up to replace Abbas as president, and no new elections will be held”.

This report is posted here.

Akiva Eldar has been the Israeli media’s most-outspoken supporter, and even advocate, of the Arab Peace Initiative which offers Israel full normalization with Arab countries [apparently now some Islamic countries are also willing to be involved, too] in exchange for a peace deal which would quickly lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state

Meanwhile, the U.S. hopes that the Arab leaders will not only NOT talk the Arab Peace Initiative off the table, but will instead do just the opposite, and actually offer some incentives to sweeten the offer to Israel…

UPDATE: The Arab League Foreign Ministers’ Follow-Up Committee had given the U.S. one more month — i.e., until after the U.S. mid-term elections — to try to find a solution to the present impasse…