Despite misgivings, PLO gives green light to indirect talks with Israel
By APSunday, March 7, 2010
Palestinians approve indirect talks with Israel
RAMALLAH, West Bank — A skeptical Palestinian leadership agreed Sunday to hold U.S.-mediated peace talks with Israel for four months, effectively ending a 14-month breakdown in communications between the two sides.
Sunday’s decision marks a first achievement for U.S. diplomacy in the Israeli-Palestinian arena. However, the Palestinians warned they would walk away if the outlines of a border deal with Israel have not emerged after four months. They also ruled out subsequent direct talks without a complete Israeli settlement construction freeze.
“This peace process cannot go on forever,” said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. “Now it’s time for decisions.”
Erekat said he did not know when the indirect talks would begin.
Sunday’s decision by the Palestine Liberation Organization to resume talks came a day before U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden begins the highest-level visit to the area by an Obama administration official.
The U.S. mediator, George Mitchell, was already in the region on Sunday, presumably for final preparations for negotiations.
He met Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and is to hold talks Monday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. In coming months, Mitchell is expected to shuttle between Abbas’ headquarters in Ramallah and Netanyahu’s office, a half hour away in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu has welcomed the prospect of negotiations. However, he has also staked out tougher positions than his predecessor, refusing to consider a partition of Jerusalem and insisting on keeping key areas of the West Bank.
Netanyahu has also resisted a complete settlement freeze, agreeing only to curb construction in the West Bank for 10 months, but not in east Jerusalem, the Palestinians’ hoped-for capital.
Netanyahu, who leads a hawkish coalition, takes a harder line on territorial concessions than his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, with whom Abbas failed to reach an agreement in 2008.
In a related development Sunday, Netanyahu approved compensation for Israelis hurt financially by the settlement freeze, his office said. The government said people who have bought homes and contractors would be eligible, but gave no figures.
The Palestinians broke off the talks after Israel launched its bruising offensive in the Gaza Strip in December 2008, aimed at stopping years of rocket attacks on Israeli towns..
Abbas refused to relaunch talks without an Israeli commitment to freezing all construction on lands they claim for a future state. The standoff put Abbas in a bind. He didn’t want to stymie U.S. efforts to relaunch talks, but he did not want to be seen as abandoning his demand for a settlement freeze.
Abbas’ failure to wrest concessions from Israel has hurt his standing among his people. He also could not afford to ignore the populist appeal of Hamas militants, who overran Gaza in 2007 and advocate armed confrontation against Israel.
The concept of indirect talks gave him a way to sidestep his refusal to negotiate with the Israelis while they continue to build in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. The Arab League endorsed the idea of four months of U.S.-mediated talks last week, giving him the backing of the Arab world — and a cover should the talks fail.
For more than a year, the Obama administration has been laboring to restart talks but was disappointed that its plan for fast-track peacemaking would be frustrated by deeply rooted conflicts and domestic politics.
Additional reporting by Amy Teibel in Jerusalem.
