FEATURED JOBS
Comments (0)Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of conceding territory and sharing the land with the Palestinian people at the formal launch of talks.
“The Jewish people are not strangers in our homeland, the land of our forefathers,” Netanyahu said in a speech delivered Wednesday evening when he met with President Obama and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House that was distributed to reporters beforehand. “But we recognize that another people share this land with us. And I came here to find an historic compromise that will enable both peoples to live in peace, security and dignity.”
Netanyahu said his overriding concern will be ensuring security for Israelis before concessions are in place.
“We left Lebanon, we got terror. We left Gaza, we got terror,” he said. “We want to ensure that territory we concede will not be turned in to a third Iranian-sponsored terror enclave aimed at the heart of Israel.”
Both statements represent subtle but fundamental changes in how Netanyahu approaches the conflict.
In the past, including in his 1996-99 tenure as prime minister, Netanyahu spoke of concessions only in begrudging recognition of prior agreements, and recognized only a Jewish claim in the Land of Israel, the historical area comprising Israel and the West Bank.
Barak: Israel Willing to Divide Jerusalem
Israel would be willing to divide control over Jerusalem as part of a peace deal, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told an Israeli newspaper.
A likely scenario, Barak told Haaretz, would have Israel retaining western Jerusalem and the 12 Jewish neighborhoods that are home to 200,000 residents, while the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem home to about 250,000 Palestinians would form the capital of a Palestinian state. A “special regime” would oversee arrangements for the Old City, the Mount of Olives and the City of David, he said.
Barak told the daily the other principles of a peace deal that he believes can be agreed upon by both sides include: “two states for two nations; an end to the conflict and the end of all future demands; the demarcation of a border that will run inside the Land of Israel, and within that border will lie a solid Jewish majority for generations and on the other side will be a demilitarized Palestinian state but one that will be viable politically, economically, and territorially; keeping the settlement blocs in our hands; retrieving and relocating the isolated settlements into the settlement blocs or within Israel; a solution to the refugee problem [whereby refugees return to] the Palestinian state or are rehabilitated by international aid; comprehensive security arrangements and a solution to the Jerusalem problem.”
According to the article, Barak appeared upbeat about the chances for success in this iteration of the peace process.
“If [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu leads a process, a significant number of rightist ministers will stand with him,” the defense chief said. “So what is needed is courage to make historic, painful decisions. I’m not saying that there is a certainty for success, but there is a chance. This chance must be exploited to the fullest.”
Settlers Respond to Hebron Terror by Building Again
A settlers’ umbrella group unilaterally ended the West Bank construction moratorium in response to the terrorist attack near Hebron.
Hundreds of settlers gathered at sites throughout the West Bank to begin construction on several structures whose building was delayed by the freeze on building in the West Bank, which began in late November 2009 and is to end Sept. 26.
The Yesha Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samara had announced Wednesday that the building would begin at 6 p.m.—the same time that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Obama and just hours before the start of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
“This brutal attack again proved that despite what might be going on in Washington right now, the Palestinians have no goal to create a peaceful state for themselves but are entirely driven to destroy our state and our people,” said Naftali Bennett, director general of the Yesha Council.
“The only response that will show our resolve against terror is to commit ourselves to building, and effective Wednesday evening we will bring this senseless freeze to an immediate end,” he said.
Among the structures started were a kindergarten in Kedumim in the northern West Bank, a community center in Adam located near Jerusalem, and a private home in Beit Haggai in the Hebron Hills, where the victims lived.